The Alberta government, Ottawa, and five major oilsands companies have signed an agreement to advance the Pathways carbon capture and storage project. The deal ties the project to a new West Coast oilsands pipeline, with governments offering investment tax credits for carbon capture equipment and enhanced oil recovery. The Pathways project aims to transport and store captured CO2 from oilsands sites to an underground hub near Cold Lake, Alberta, with initial capacity of about six million tonnes per year by the mid-2030s. Critics argue the emissions reductions are small relative to current oilsands pollution, which hit 92 million tonnes of CO2 in 2024. The agreement includes federal tax credits of up to 50 percent for carbon capture equipment and provincial incentives tied to production growth. The consortium behind Pathways includes Canadian Natural Resources, Imperial Oil, Suncor, Cenovus Energy, and ConocoPhillips. The project is expected to cost between $20 billion and $30 billion.
