BREAKING: Kenney slams carbon tax ruling, says court 'discovered new federal power that erodes provincial jurisdictions'

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney reacted to the Supreme Court of Canada's decision to rule in favour of the federal carbon tax's legality on Thursday.

"We are obviously disappointed with this decision," said Kenney, who was one of three provincial premiers—along with Ontario's and Saskatchewan's—to bring the constitutional challenges up to the court.

"The Supreme Court ignored the Alberta Court of Appeal's warning and discovered a new federal power that erodes provincial jurisdictions."

Kenney said that his government will "take time" to study the court's decision "in detail, saying he was appreciative of the three Supreme Court judges who voted against the tax's legality.

"I do appreciate the three thoughtful, descending opinions, including that of Justice Russell Brown, who wrote: 'The true danger in the majorities reason lies in its abandonment of any meaningful constraint on federal power,'" said Kenney.

Kenney also quoted Supreme Court Judge Susan Cote, who wrote that "the federal carbon tax employs a discretionary scheme that knows no bounds."

Kenney sounded alarms around what the decision means for provincial jurisdiction, saying that the best that he could hope for was that the court invented a "one-time-only, carbon pricing exception to constitutional order."

"We'll continue to fight to defend our exclusive provincial power, and to regulate our resource industries," said Kenney, saying that the regulation of Alberta's resource industries was guaranteed to the province in section 92-A of Canada's constitution, "which was a condition of Alberta signing on to the patriation of the constitution back in 1982."

The Trudeau government has already chosen to dramatically raise taxes under the act since its inception. Late last year, the government announced that the tax would be increasing by 240 percent by the year 2030, an action it could take without an act of Parliament.