Don’t cheer Alberta’s premier. Demand she break the oil barons’ vice-grip | Martin Lukacs

Alberta's climate plan falls far short of what's possible: unleashing a green economy that creates hundreds of thousands of jobs and transitions off the tar sands

Alberta's new climate plan is drawing praise from sources that have rarely got on with the oil-exporter - Al Gore, labour unions and some of North America's biggest green groups. At first glance, it's not hard to see why: Alberta is promising an accelerated phase-out of coal, increased funds for renewable energy and impacted workers, and a price on carbon. It's a major step hard to imagine scarcely a year ago, when the province was still under a multi-decade Conservative reign.

So why then are the oil barons celebrating? Beaming with pride, the heads of Canada's biggest tar sands companies flanked premier Rachel Notley during Sunday's announcement.