Alberta Premier Jason Kenney's government suspended dozens of rules due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a decision that disrupted the province’s climate change battle.sweeping suspension
But a recent report from a provincial watchdog indicates those claims were inaccurate. The report, released by the Alberta Energy Regulator, reveals how the temporary rule suspensions, meant to offer companies coronavirus relief, wound up disrupting the province’s fight against climate change.online in early 2022, but it has not provided any in-depth commentary or analysis about the full extent of any environmental damage caused by the temporary rule changes.
“This year was also unique, as there were temporary requirement relaxations because of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the regulator wrote in its report. These changes led to “data gaps” in the regulator’s tracking of how much methane actually escaped from leaky equipment, the report said. As a result, the amount of methane leaking from oil and gas operations was “under-reported in 2020,” the regulator said.