Added Donkin Coal Mine to the list of mandatory participants in the NS Carbon Pricing Program
The Donkin coal mine is now subject to Nova Scotia’s carbon pricing system for large emitters.
A government executive order signed this week made the Kameron Coal-owned mine, which resumed operations in September, the third company in the province to be required to participate in Nova Scotia’s performance-based pricing system.
“This is intended to hold major emitters to account,” Environment Minister Tim Halman said in an interview on Friday.
“I made it clear to Nova Scotians months ago that I believe Donkin should be a part of it. We know that Donkin is the second largest issuer in Nova Scotia, so it’s only fitting, it’s only fitting that they are part of the mandatory participants in this program.”
Nova Scotia Power and Brookfield’s Lafarge Cement Plant are the other two companies that are required to participate because their greenhouse gas emissions exceed 50,000 tonnes per year.
The province introduced its performance-based pricing system last fall to replace the cap-and-trade system Nova Scotia has been using since 2019. Launched in January, it sets performance standards that companies must meet or face financial penalties.
With the federal government calling for an annual carbon price hike through 2030, it found that the existing cap-and-trade program was unable to meet the new thresholds. So the province had to develop a new system or accept Ottawa’s updated pricing scheme.
Halman said there are four or five other companies in Nova Scotia with emissions between 10,000 and 50,000 tons for which participation in the pricing scheme will be voluntary.
The minister said he believed it would be beneficial for these companies to sign up because it gave them an alternative to the federal government’s pricing system. Provincial officials have said Nova Scotia’s system would increase electricity rates for subscribers by less than the federal system.
“My employees work with companies like Michelin all the time,” said Halman.
Volunteers must register for the plan by April 1st.
Consumer carbon pricing begins in July
Updating carbon prices for industrial emitters has been a much smoother process for the Nova Scotia government than dealing with consumable fuels.
The provincial government declined to draft its own carbon pricing plan for gas, diesel and heating oil. Halman and Premier Tim Houston tried to persuade federal officials that the province’s statutory emissions reduction targets should be enough.
The federal government disagreed, noting that a federal pricing plan is federal only if all provinces participate.
In the absence of acceptable submission from Nova Scotia, Secretary of the Environment Steven Guilbeault announced in November that the state carbon pricing system for gas, diesel and heating oil for Nova Scotia would go into effect on July 1. The federal government will begin sending quarterly rebate checks in the same month to offset price increases Nova Scotians will experience.
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