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McMillan was not available for an interview on Friday.

CAPP spokesman Chelsie Klassen said the industry organization isn’t recommending a specific course of action for the government, which announced in June it would hike the carbon levy to $30 per tonne in 2017 from the existing $15 levy on large industrial emitters who fail to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

“We think they should look at all policies they have in place in totality and how that makes this industry competitive,” she said. “We’re asking that they look at it as a whole package to be competitive and attract investment.”

Simon Dyer, Alberta director for the environmental Pembina Institute, says the poll really illustrates how poorly understood among the public are the costs of carbon levies on big industries.

“The doubled carbon levy has a 13-cent-per-barrel cost to companies for a typical oilsands mine,” he said. “There are many reasons why the oilsands are in trouble right now but carbon pricing is not one of them.”

In its submission to the provincial climate change review panel this week, Pembina called for a broadly based carbon tax on all measurable sources of emissions at a rate of $40 per tonne in 2016, escalating by $10 per year over the first 10 years of the policy.

In CAPP’s submission released last week, it recommends the province increase its support for finding new technologies to solve the industry’s rising emissions of greenhouse gases.

A Mainstreet/Postmedia poll released earlier this week that found that 49 per cent of Albertans said they were opposed to a carbon levy to help Alberta address climate change, compared with 35 per cent who backed the idea and 16 per cent who were undecided.

CAPP estimates 36,000 jobs, most in Alberta, have been lost this year because of the commodity price downturn.

dhealing@calgaryherald.com

Twitter.com./HealingSlowly