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A recent request to cancel an oilsands project due to “regulatory uncertainty” is a signal of similar economic moves to come, according to the Wildrose party.

MLA Don MacIntyre said he expects to see more companies follow suit after Koch Oil Sands Operating asked the Alberta Energy Regulator to rescind its approval of the Muskwa steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) project.

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“We’ve been saying all along that investor confidence is being undermined and that carbon taxation, when none of the other jurisdictions around you are doing it, just leads to carbon leakage and investor confidence being severely hurt,” said MacIntyre.

“This, in particular, I think is going to be the first of many of the small players that make these kind of economic moves.”

Byron Lutes, vice-president of business development at Koch Oil Sands Operating, said in a letter to the energy regulator last week that the company “does not believe the current nor medium-term economic environment in Alberta will provide opportunity to generate an adequate return on the required capital for construction of the Muskwa SAGD project.”

“The longer-term economic risk of the project is further burdened with regulatory uncertainty around the Climate Leadership Program and its potential impacts on the project, from carbon tax to the emissions cap, both recently legislated by the Alberta Government,” Lutes wrote.