“We are dismayed that today’s new regulations leave high-carbon projects off the list of what needs to undergo a federal impact assessment,” said Julia Levin, ED’s climate and energy program manager. “Exempting oil and gas projects from environmental review is like saying you’re going to study the environmental impacts of road vehicles and then giving a free pass to SUVs and transport trucks.”

“Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to grow, largely because of growing emissions from the oil and gas industry, which account for over a quarter of the country’s emissions,” the organization adds in a release. Yet the project list that sets the stage for environmental assessments “exempts some of the highest-carbon projects in the oil and gas sector, such as in-situ tar sands operations and unconventional gas production, commonly called fracking. Other large carbon-emitting projects like cement plants are also left off of the list.”