Federal Methane Rules Suspended in Alberta

Summary#

This is an order (Registration SOR/2025-213) that says the federal Regulations Respecting Reduction in the Release of Methane and Certain Volatile Organic Compounds (Upstream Oil and Gas Sector) do not apply in Alberta, except for federal works and undertakings. The order was registered and came into force on October 23, 2025, and the Canada Gazette published it on November 5, 2025.

What it does#

• Declares that the federal methane-and-VOC regulations do not apply in Alberta, except for federal works or undertakings (for example, interprovincial pipelines).
• Implements a negotiated equivalency agreement between the Minister of the Environment and the Government of Alberta that says Alberta’s rules are equivalent to the federal rules.
• Ties the order to that agreement: the order ends when the agreement ends. The agreement can run for up to five years and may be ended earlier with three months’ notice.
• Requires Alberta to share more detailed, facility-level emissions and enforcement information with the federal government and to meet annually to review implementation.

Who's affected#

• Oil and gas companies and facilities operating in Alberta — they will follow Alberta’s methane rules rather than the federal ones.
• Facilities on reserve lands used by First Nations in Alberta (the order applies to those facilities too, except where a facility is a federal work or undertaking).
• The federal government and Environment and Climate Change Canada (less federal enforcement and reporting work in Alberta).
• Environmental groups and the public — they may be affected by changes in where and how emissions data is reported and reviewed.

Why it matters#

• It prevents duplicate rules and paperwork for Alberta oil-and-gas operations by having one set of requirements (Alberta’s) instead of both provincial and federal rules. That is expected to save about $1,638,577 in federal administrative costs over five years.
• The federal analysis says Alberta’s rules are expected to give similar or slightly better methane reductions over 2025–2029: 38.68 megatonnes (Mt) CO2e for the Alberta rules versus 37.77 Mt CO2e for the federal rules (a difference of 0.91 Mt CO2e).
• The modelling behind that conclusion used the National Inventory Report data from 2018 and did not incorporate some more recent direct-measurement data added to the inventory starting in 2024. The government says that could affect future analyses if the federal regulations change.
• Federal rules still apply to federal works and undertakings in Alberta, so some projects (for example, interprovincial infrastructure) remain under the federal regime.