After months of challenging talks surrounding the Alberta-Canada energy pact, a deal over increasing the province’s industrial carbon price appears set to be ironed out — but will it get widespread buy-in from the country’s oil and gas industry?

The Carney and Smith governments are about to find out, as the two sides have largely agreed on increasing the effective carbon price in Alberta to $130 a tonne by 2040, with an announcement expected as early as this week, according to sources.

Some industry leaders oppose the notion of an industrial carbon tax, saying it will make Canadian companies less competitive in attracting capital.

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Others see a long-term advantage of reaching such a deal — one that sets the carbon price below existing federal plans to reach $170 a tonne by the end of this decade.

And there are other key gains for Alberta within the memorandum of understanding (MOU), including the opportunity to advance a new oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast, and ending the oilpatch emissions cap and Clean Electricity Regulations.

“I’m thrilled and I’m optimistic that the carbon pricing is maybe the last major issue to be dealt with, and that we can get some of these projects announced and going quickly,” Paul Colborne, CEO of Calgary-based Surge Energy, said Tuesday.

“Everything is about balance.”

Others have been less enthusiastic about the prospect of increasing Alberta’s industrial carbon price, which was frozen by the UCP government last year at $95 per tonne of emissions.

Under the broader MOU, the province agreed to an effective carbon price of $130 per tonne under its Technology, Innovation and Emissions........

© Calgary Herald