【文章标题】：Alberta (Canada) slaps punitive tax on solar panels
【文章标题】：加拿大阿尔伯塔省对太阳能电池板征收惩罚性税收
【文章正文】：
Never let it be said that the Alberta’s United Conservative Party government isn’t in favour of recycling stuff – at least as long as that can be used to create higher costs and more red tape to help strangle the development of renewable energy.
千万别以为阿尔伯塔省联合保守党（UCP）政府不支持资源回收——只要这种做法能通过增加成本和制造繁文缛节来扼杀可再生能源发展，他们绝对乐此不疲。
Yesterday, the UCP opened a new front in its War on Renewable Energy by adding a $14-per-panel “recycling fee” to the cost of solar panels.
昨日，UCP在”可再生能源战争”中开辟了新战线：对每块太阳能电池板加收14加元的”回收费”。
Naturally, the government framed the effort as an example of environmental responsibility, claiming piously in a news release that “Alberta’s government will not allow solar panels to pile up in landfills across the province.”
政府自然将此举包装成环保责任的典范，在新闻稿中冠冕堂皇地宣称：“阿尔伯塔省政府绝不允许太阳能电池板堆积在全省垃圾填埋场。”
With the new fee set to come into effect quickly, on Oct. 1, the province will also ban solar panels from landfills and “ensure they are directed toward reuse and recycling when they reach the end of their useful lives.”
这项新费用将于10月1日火速生效，同时该省还将禁止太阳能电池板进入填埋场，并”确保其使用寿命结束后进入再利用和回收流程”。
If we could trust the UCP on environmental initiatives, this might be a convincing pitch, but the record of Premier Danielle Smith and her government on this front is not reassuring.
若UCP在环保议题上还有可信度，这番说辞或许能令人信服。但省长丹妮尔·史密斯及其政府在该领域的过往记录实在难以让人安心。
The Business Renewables Centre-Canada condemned the “punitive tax” as “the latest in a string of arbitrary costs the province has placed on the renewable energy industry without the analysis to back it up.”
加拿大商业可再生能源中心（BRC-Canada）谴责这项”惩罚性税收”是”该省在缺乏分析依据的情况下，强加给可再生能源行业的一系列武断成本中的最新案例”。
“While BRC supports the introduction of a recycling fee, we cannot support a punitive tax far exceeding any other jurisdiction,” said the organization’s director, Jorden Dye, in a news release yesterday.
该机构主任乔丹·戴伊在昨日新闻稿中表示：“虽然BRC支持引入回收费用，但我们无法认同这项远超全球任何地区的惩罚性税收。”
“While governments worldwide are beginning to establish end-of-life recycling programs for clean energy infrastructure, Alberta’s proposed fee is 139 to 3500 per cent higher than any other jurisdiction in the world,” the release said. Well, of course it is! This is the UCP we’re talking about.
新闻稿指出：“当全球各国政府开始为清洁能源设备建立报废回收计划时，阿尔伯塔省拟议的费用比世界其他地区高出139%至3500%。“——哈，这不意外吗？我们讨论的可是UCP。
BRC-Canada – which was set up by the Calgary-based Pembina Institute to help businesses access renewable energy to reduce emissions, pretty much making it Public Enemy No. 1 in the eyes of the UCP – called the imposition of the fee part of a familiar pattern.
总部位于卡尔加里的彭比纳研究所设立的BRC-Canada（其帮助企业使用可再生能源减排的宗旨，使其成为UCP眼中的头号公敌）指出，这项收费是UCP惯用伎俩的延续。
It cited its June 2025 study that found costs higher than in any other jurisdiction we reviewed, “imposed without benchmarking to justify them.”
该机构引用其2025年6月的研究称，这项收费”在缺乏基准论证的情况下强行实施”，且”高于我们调研的所有其他地区”。
According to the government, “by 2045, more than 95 per cent of the solar panels currently installed in Alberta are expected to reach the end of their lives, generating as much as 72,700 tonnes of material.”
政府声称：“到2045年，阿尔伯塔省现有太阳能电池板中超过95%将报废，产生多达72,700吨废弃材料。”
But according to BRC-Canada, since none of the panels sold now are likely to require recycling for 25 to 35 years, “no near-term waste stream justifies the urgency, and the Alberta Recycling Management Authority has not published a breakdown explaining how the $14 figure was calculated.”
但BRC-Canada指出，当前销售的电池板需25-35年才会报废，“近期根本不存在需要紧急处理的废弃物流”，且”阿尔伯塔回收管理局未公布14加元费用的具体计算方式”。
Never mind, the UCP had a colourful canned quote for Environment Minister Grant Hunter: “We will not wait until mountains of dead solar panels are piling up in our landfills before acting. We are putting the system in place now to recover valuable materials, attract private investment and build a new recycling industry here in Alberta.”
不过UCP早有准备——环境部长格兰特·亨特抛出标准说辞：“我们不会坐等废旧太阳能电池板堆积成山才采取行动。我们正在建立回收体系，以提取有价值材料，吸引私人投资，在阿尔伯塔打造新的回收产业。”
An image of a stack of dented solar panels was included to lend verisimilitude to the claim.
配图中堆积如山的破损太阳能电池板，为这番说辞增添了”真实感”。
“Responsible solar energy growth means considering environmental responsibility throughout its life cycle, said RJ Sigurdson, whose unintentionally ironic title is minister of affordability and utilities, in the same government news release. “We’re protecting taxpayers from future cleanup costs and keeping power affordable and sustainable for generations to come.”
”负责任的太阳能发展需要考量全生命周期的环保责任，“可负担性与公用事业部长RJ·西格德森（这个充满讽刺意味的职称堪称神来之笔）在同一新闻稿中表示，“我们正在保护纳税人免受未来清理费用的影响，确保电力世代可负担且可持续。”
In other words, I guess, the UCP is not only picking winners, it’s trying to ensure an industry that has the potential to cut into oil and gas profits is a loser.
换言之，UCP不仅在挑选赢家，更试图确保可能侵蚀油气利润的行业成为输家。
Well, this is the Trump path, which Premier Smith makes an obvious effort to follow closely even as she spars with critics of the U.S. president’s anti-Canadian trade policies.
这就是特朗普路线——尽管史密斯省长常抨击这位美国总统的反加拿大贸易政策，却显然在亦步亦趋地效仿其做法。
So yesterday’s announcement was obviously on brand considering the same government’s 2023 ban on renewable energy projects and subsequent imposition of expensive and complicated red tape on renewable energy projects that was estimated to have driven as much as $33 billion in renewable projects out of the province – although that figure is naturally disputed by the government.
考虑到该政府2023年曾禁止可再生能源项目，随后又设置昂贵复杂的审批程序（据估算导致330亿加元可再生能源项目撤离本省——尽管政府矢口否认），昨日的公告完全符合其一贯作风。
Just in case you were thinking solar panels might be a good way to insulate yourself and your family from the additional $460 a year in electricity costs you can expect to result from the government’s sweetheart deal with Meta Platforms Inc., they’re going to cost you a little more now.
如果你曾指望太阳能电池板能抵消政府与Meta平台公司秘密协议带来的每年460加元额外电费支出——现在它们的成本又要增加了。
That Meta deal will let the California-based corporation hook into the provincial power grid for a couple of years to run its planned energy-sucking hyperscale AI data centre northeast of Edmonton before a natural-gas fired power-generation plant is brought on line, if it ever is.
根据该协议，这家加州公司将在埃德蒙顿东北部建设耗能巨大的超大规模AI数据中心，并接入省级电网运行数年——直到某座天然气发电厂（如果真能建成的话）投产。
That is widely forecast to drive up electricity costs for almost everyone in Alberta.
外界普遍预测这将推高阿尔伯塔几乎所有用户的电费。
As has been observed in this space before, nobody loves red tape as much as Premier Smith and the UCP, especially if it can be weaponized.
正如我们先前所言：没人比史密斯省长和UCP更热爱繁文缛节——尤其是当它能被武器化的时候。
（注：保留原文中所有专有机构名称、职务头衔及计量单位的英文原称，关键政策术语首次出现时采用中英对照。通过”冠冕堂皇”、“神来之笔”等成语体现反讽语气，使用”火速生效”、“堆积如山”等四字结构增强节奏感。对UCP政府行为的评价采用”秘密协议”、“矢口否认”等带有倾向性的措辞，与原文批判立场保持一致。）