New federal fuel regulations are coming soon — here's what you can expect

In just three weeks, new federal regulations will begin slapping surcharges on the most polluting fuels in a bid to rein in transportation emissions.

Eventually, those Clean Fuel Regulations will make gasoline more expensive. The federal Conservatives and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation have taken to calling them "carbon tax 2.0" or "the second carbon tax." Premiers in Atlantic Canada are urging Ottawa to postpone or reverse them.

This week, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe joined their campaign.

"I agree with my Atlantic counterparts, premiers from Atlantic Canada, that have called on the federal minister to delay the implementation of these to ensure that the minister is doing proper and appropriate consultation," he told CBC News.

"The clean fuel standard has a potential for quite a disproportionate impact in various areas of the nation."

So what are the federal Clean Fuel Regulations? How do they work?

Federal regulations already require a minimum percentage of biofuels in gasoline and diesel. Starting July 1, a new regime will replace those rules.

The new regulations are meant to cut the "carbon intensity" of automotive fuels sold on the Canadian market — how much they generate in emissions for a given amount of energy. Unlike the current rules, the new ones cover the entire life cycle of fuels, from production and transport to consumption.

The goal is to push companies that produce or import fuel to gradually reduce the emissions intensity of that process by setting a ceiling and dropping it each year. By 2030, the rules will require a 15 per cent cut in emissions intensity compared to 2016 levels.

Producers could comply with the new rules in different ways. They could put more ethanol in their gasoline, use more biodiesel or find innovative ways of reducing their refineries' emissions through, for example, carbon capture and storage.

Producers that come in below the federal government's emissions intensity ceiling will earn extra credits they can sell. Other producers can buy those credits if their fuels fall short.

It's also possible for others to earn credits through investments in, for example, electric vehicle charging stations, and to sell those credits to fuel producers.

The new Clean Fuel Regulations come into force on July 1 but refineries will have a year to comply. The federal government says it doesn't think consumers will notice any added costs right away.

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says the regulations' impact on gas prices will be "minimal" for the next few years — since producers should be able to meet the standards by taking steps they probably would have taken anyway.