An environmental policy has been added by the Canada Energy Regulator (CER) to ensure there are net-zero emissions for some new oil and natural gas projects.

Annual Canada Oil and Gas Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions

The rule surfaced in a revised filing manual for project sponsors that the CER wrote to obey a regulatory green new deal legislated by the national Liberal government’s 2019 Impact Assessment Act.

After nearly a year of consultations with the Alberta-based Canadian fossil fuel industry, which unsuccessfully fought the act as a “no more pipelines bill,” the 284-page rulebook sets limits on the clean-up requirement.

The new filing manual stated that the net-zero standard only needs to be satisfied by projects with planned lifespans that last past a target date of 2050 in the government policy. Pipeline and processing...