Is Crescent Point Energy’s withdrawal from Canada’s largest oil and gas lobbying group a shot across the bow in a little oil vs. big oil battle over the country’s energy and climate policies?

Crescent Point Energy is leaving Canada’s main oil and gas lobbying group in what may be the opening salvo of a political war over the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) energy and climate policies.

Neither party is commenting on the decision by the Calgary, Alberta-based producer—whose production is almost entirely located in Saskatchewan, the province immediately east of Alberta— to not renew its membership. Crescent Point Energy did not respond to a request for comment.

"Crescent Point Energy did not renew with CAPP [Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers] for the 2017 year. If they decide to renew again, we would look forward to working with them in the future," said Chelsie Klassen, spokesperson for CAPP.

But Crescent Point CEO Scott Saxberg has been a vocal critic of Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s government and its Climate Leadership Plan, which has been praised by the executives of the large oil sands producers and panned by juniors and mid-caps, as well as industry associations from the service sector.

The new climate regulations imposed a carbon levy of CA$30 per ton combined with “output-based allocations”—designed to reward low-emission producers—on large industrial emitters that will kick in after 2017; a 100-megaton greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions cap for the oil sands—current emissions are 70 megatons/year;—and a 45% reduction in methane emissions from energy production by 2025.

Combined with a 20% hike in corporate income tax and a royalty structure review, which initially drew industry criticism but was later praised for improving the existing system, many small producers felt they were over-regulated and over-taxed.

“We have a government here that’s determined to impose higher costs through carbon taxes that our friends and competitors in the United States don’t have to endure or absorb,” Gary Leach, CEO of the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada, said in an interview.

During the furor over the royalty review, Saxberg threatened to move Crescent Point’s corporate office to Regina, Saskatchewan. He is also an ardent supporter of Conservative Premier Brad Wall of Saskatchewan.

Political scientist Keith Brownsey said the decision to leave CAPP was likely pure partisanship on Saxberg’s behalf.

“CAPP has always had the attitude that they could get along with any government in Canada. It wasn't a problem,” he said in an interview.

“This says something very different about one of their corporate members who doesn’t want to get along with the New Democrats or perhaps even the [federal] Liberals for that matter, which will certainly isolate the company.”

Brownsey said it was coincidence that word of Crescent Point’s decision to leave CAPP happened only five days after the announcement that Alberta’s two conservative political parties—Wildrose and the Progressive Conservatives—had reached an agreement to combine into a new entity, the United Conservative Party.

“It's purely partisan. It's political as far as I can tell today,” Brownsey said. “They're making a lot of noise about the NDP in Alberta on the one hand, and on the other hand they're supporting the Saskatchewan government whose policies are very similar.”

Many of CAPP’s largest members, particularly the large Canadian oil sands producers, helped the Notley government draft the new energy and climate regulations. And several gave the NDP high marks for balancing emissions reductions with affordable costs.

“There is no doubt that the world is moving to a lower carbon economy,” said Brian Ferguson, Cenovus Energy CEO. “If you fast forward five years’ time in Alberta, you will see it actually has worked.”

Tim McMillan, CAPP’s president, has publicly supported the NDP climate plan: “Through innovation and the development and application of technology, our industry’s objective is to decrease, over time, greenhouse-gas emissions per unit of oil and natural gas produced.”

Dave Collyer was McMillan’s predecessor at CAPP. He said there is a deep division between larger producers who have been pricing carbon for years and are committed to adopting new technologies to dramatically reduce GHG emissions, and the smaller producers who worry about remaining competitive in a low-price environment.

“I do believe that there's a fairly significant group in terms of numbers and in influence that believes that [Alberta and] Canada should not get out ahead of others in respect to climate policy and that there's a significant competitiveness dimension to this,” Collyer said in an interview.

He was one of the industry executives who helped the Alberta government craft energy and climate policy, including co-chairing an oil sands advisory group tasked with recommending the best methods of implementing the emissions cap.

Collyer firmly believes the Alberta oil and gas industry has to join the global consensus on climate change and emissions, and public policy to reduce those emissions: “I think the industry in Calgary ought to be more visibly supportive of the direction that both the federal and provincial governments are going.

That view puts him out of bounds with conservatives like Ric McIver, MLA for Calgary-Hays in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. McIver is former interim leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and was an early influential member of the fledgling United Conservative Party.

“…With all due respect, I think it’s the NDP that’s on the extreme end of this thing. They’re prepared to shut down entire industries prematurely in order to satisfy some dogmatic master that they seem to answer to,” he said in an interview.

McIver’s view of Rachel Notley’s NDP government is common in the Alberta oil patch, according to Brownsey.

The new United Conservative Party will enjoy plenty of political and financial support from the Scott Saxbergs of the industry, which will only serve to further polarize an issue that should be about public policy, not politics, said Collyer.

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