A new report commissioned by an industry lobby group on the federal government’s proposed emissions cap stirred up strong reactions from both oil and gas supporters and environmental groups on Monday.
The report, by S&P Global Commodity Insights, was commissioned by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers to examine the impact of various proposed emissions-reducing policies on Canada’s conventional (non-oilsands) oil and gas producers.
Its conclusions Monday were used to support the industry argument that legislating an emissions ceiling will inhibit investment and growth, even as opponents argued the report’s methodology was flawed.
The commissioned report concludes that if oil and gas drillers were required to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030, industry could see $75 billion less in capital investment over the course of the next nine years compared with current policy conditions.
Oh no, not the capital investment! Anything but that!
For the record, the oil industry’s global profits were $4T. Not revenue, profit. $75B in investment sounds like a lot, until you realize all it means is that they’ll need to dig into that $4T to fund stuff, and that $75B is less than two percent of $4T, and the actual hit to revenue and income will be even less.
They can cut back on avocado toast, as it were.