Province Modernizes Regulations to Support Environmental Protection, Transition to Green Energy

The Province has made changes to two sets of regulations to help support the transition to clean energy. The changes are specific to the green hydrogen sector and were made to ensure the sector has clear, easy-to-understand information about the environmental regulations they must adhere to in Nova Scotia.

The changes to the Environmental Assessment Regulations and Activities Designation Regulations make it clear that:

• large-scale projects that produce and/or store hydrogen or ammonia require a Class I environmental assessment
• facilities that produce and/or store hydrogen or ammonia require operational approvals
• several operational approvals can be bundled under one clear, facility-level approval for hydrogen facilities, thus reducing their administrative burden.

“Transforming our energy sector is critical to tackling the climate change emergency and ensuring the long-term sustainability and health of our environment,” said Timothy Halman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change. “As the regulator, my role is to ensure that our environmental protection regulations and processes are clear and easy to understand. We want companies to spend less time trying to figure out the rules and just follow them. We are applying this lens to all of our work to see where we need to modernize language and remove ambiguity. These specific changes clarify the environmental regulatory path for green hydrogen, thereby minimizing administrative burden on both them and Department staff, while also maintaining our high environmental protection standards.”

The Department has also created two new business relationship manager positions to help companies navigate and understand the Province’s environmental regulations and processes, including inspection, compliance and enforcement.

Quick Facts:

• about 90 per cent of Nova Scotia’s greenhouse gas emissions come from fossil-fuel generated energy, which contributes to climate change
• on December 9, EverWind Fuels Company was the first business to register a green hydrogen project for environmental assessment in Nova Scotia
• EverWind wants to develop and operate a certified green energy hydrogen and ammonia production facility on an industrial property in Point Tupper; pending all environmental approvals, the company intends to begin construction in the spring
• the Province is developing a green hydrogen action plan to be released in 2023

Additional Resources:

News release – Legislation Supports Green Hydrogen Development: https://novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=20221017007

Information on the environment assessment process in Nova Scotia is available at: https://novascotia.ca/nse/ea/

Our Climate, Our Future: Nova Scotia’s Climate Change Plan for Clean Growth: https://climatechange.novascotia.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/ns-climate-change-plan.pdf