From pipe dream to a real prospect, Alberta’s ambitious proposal to see a new oil artery built to the Pacific Coast gained more traction Friday, one that could see crude flowing through a new project within eight years.

An agreement on increasing Alberta’s industrial carbon tax was signed in Calgary on Friday by Prime Minister Mark Carney and Premier Danielle Smith, which could help clear the path for a proposed bitumen pipeline to the West Coast — expected to begin operating no later than in 2033 or ’34, according to officials.

The deal helps cut through a thicket of federal regulatory and policy issues, while increasing the province’s industrial carbon price over the next 14 years to an effective rate of $130 per tonne of emissions.

Varcoe: Alberta, Ottawa have their pipeline deal, but industry will still have say with massive carbon capture project Back to video

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Just as significant, it will put the ball back in the court of Canada’s largest oilsands producers on advancing a major carbon capture project, as the pipeline and decarbonization initiative are mutually dependent on the other being built.

Negotiations are set to ramp up between both governments and the Oil Sands Alliance to see if the companies are prepared to build the multibillion-dollar Pathways carbon capture network in northern Alberta.

“I’m very confident that a pipeline is going to be built, and the Pathways project is linked to this — that one doesn’t go ahead without the........

© Calgary Herald