The Alberta electricity company Capital Power, which is developing a large new AI data centre in the province powered by natural gas, lobbied the federal Mark Carney government dozens of times last year to eliminate clean energy regulations, DeSmog has learned.

Carney Allowed Gas-powered AI Data Centres After Lobbying From Alberta Energy Company

The Alberta gas giant Capital Power lobbied the government 37 times in the lead-up to an accord suspending clean energy regulations, federal records show.

These regulations were subsequently dropped from a fossil fuel accord that the prime minister signed with the government of Alberta last November, allowing large new data centres fuelled by gas turbines to proceed.

“We’ve got a new paradigm that allows us to look at growth capital” for Canadian gas-powered AI projects, Capital Power CEO Avik Dey said in reaction to the Carney government announcing it would suspend the regulations.

The Edmonton-based power company communicated with the government of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney close to 40 times between the time Carney was elected in April 2025, and the signing of the Canada-Alberta Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), in November 2025, according to federal lobbying records analyzed by DeSmog.

The MOU is an agreement between Canada’s federal government and that of the Province of Alberta wherein the federal government agreed in principle to support a new oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast, as well as special treatment for the province on a range of federal government climate policies.

The MOU lists increasing oil production in Alberta as its first objective, while also suspending Alberta’s Clean Electricity Regulations and eliminating the Oil and Gas Emissions Cap. The same agreement also proposed the development of AI data centres in Alberta, a potential new use for the province’s considerable gas resources.

That agreement has been widely criticized by environmentalists and Indigenous communities.

The term ‘data centre’ appears at least 25 times in notes from Capital Power’s interactions with the federal government, while the term ‘emissions’ appears 17 times, and ‘clean energy regulations’ and ‘net zero’ appear each at least 14 times.

Records show the company has advocated specifically for the development of gas-fired power plants, policies and programs related to the development of AI data centres, and “the energy source(s) required for those data centres to be successful.”

Environment and Climate Change Canada press secretary Keean Nembhard wrote in an emailed statement to DeSmog that the government’s clean energy regulations continue “to apply in all provinces and territories and will require electricity-generating units to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.”

However, Nembhard added, “data centres with their own power generation, not connected to the commercial grid, would not be covered by the [regulation].”  

Capital Power didn’t respond to a request for comment.

https://www.desmog.com/2026/02/25/carney-allowed-gas-powered-ai-centres-after-lobbying-from-alberta-energy-company/

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