Parsing the symbols, signals and seriousness of Alberta’s new Sovereignty Act move [Video]

To show how opposed her UCP government is to Ottawa’s oil and gas emissions cap, Premier Danielle Smith said Alberta would use its provincial Sovereignty Act to bar energy companies from submitting emissions data to the federal government, and from letting federal employees onto their production sites.

These actions are “bold” in the government’s own words. They’d also potentially run afoul of federal law requiring data sharing, and companies’ own obligations to shareholders and investors.

But it’s worth considering how many switches would have to flip a certain way to reach this fraught point of provincial-federal standoff over data and where federal inspectors could literally stand:

1. The draft oil and gas emissions cap — which the province and other critics say would force production cuts — would have to be enacted into law, either as soon as this spring or (given the typical pace of consultation periods and deliberations) next fall.

2. The Liberals would have to reverse a large and longstanding popularity deficitto …