Legislative, Regulatory & Legal

The oil industry’s next threat could be in the grocery aisle.A worldwide movement to limit single-use plastics in food packaging poses a challenge for Canada’s fossil fuel sector, at the same time that large companies struggle with volatile prices, pipeline constraints and the global rise of electric vehicles.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would join other countries and ban as early as 2021 a range of everyday plastics that are frequently discarded after a single use, including forks and knives, shopping bags and stir sticks.The move is part of wider efforts by the Liberal government to improve Canada’s dismal recycling rates and reduce pollution, just five months shy of a federal election in which the environment and climate change promise to be major issues.The proposed ban would align with European Union regulations on single-use plastics, and a global push that some analysts and energy companies say has major implications for global oil demand and industry revenues.The oil industry supplies chemical manufacturers with the building blocks needed to make resins that are used to create plastic products.

Lab-grown meat is getting a lot of attention along with plant-based meat substitutes.

Husky Energy was fined $3.8 million for a pipeline oil leak that fouled a major river, harmed fish and wildlife and tainted the drinking water supply for thousands of people in Saskatchewan.

A national ban on the most harmful single-use plastics will very likely force foodservice operators, restaurants and fast-food outlets to find non-plastic materials for takeout and delivery containers but plastic bottles for water and soda are more likely to be improved rather than phased out.

The Manitoba government is watering down its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and removing any possible carbon tax from the equation.

Canada will ban single-use plastics as early as 2021, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday.

Several of Canada's leading environment groups say election demands from Canada's oil industry earlier this week are a direct attack on the future health and prosperity of Canadians.

The premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan are pledging to harmonize regulations governing the movement of oil and gas rigs in the two provinces.Jason Kenney and Scott Moe have signed a memorandum of understanding noting that some commercial trucking rules are not suitable for service rigs, which spend most of the time in a field, not on a road.The goal is to make it easier for rigs to be moved from job site to job site in both provinces without getting bogged down by two sets of rules.The agreement was signed as Kenney and Moe appeared together at an oil trade show in Weyburn, Sask.The two conservative premiers praised the policies of their respective governments, while taking shots at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal carbon tax.Both heralded their support for pipelines and say they are confident the federal government will approve the stalled construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion by the June 18 deadline.