The attack on natural gas
COAP and members showed up at council.
Dear COAP members,
We put a shout-out to attend a local council meeting to push back against a message from a Climate Hub delegation and ended up filling all 5 slots for speaking. As well, we heard from the council that they had many letters come in against the banning of natural gas in new dwellings, so thank you all - this is the point of COAP, to speak on your behalf, and put calls out when needed. ( Videos at the bottom of this Substack)
I ( Adrienne) also spoke with a very knowledgeable representative from Fortis for about an hour who helped me understand our energy needs, usage, and lack of energy independence on the island. I also found out that Fortis has worked for over 12 years to try to convince local municipalities and Regional Districts to join together to build a facility that would use OUR curbside waste to produce our own natural gas…. but no government has pursued this avenue of a true ‘circular economy’ model and seem to prefer to ship our waste elsewhere.
This representative has reached out to all the island councils. Here is her email to North Cowichan :
From: LeBlanc, Carmen
Sent: Wednesday, September 6, 2023 2:03 PM
To: council@northcowichan.ca
Subject: FortisBC supports the use of low carbon energy to achieve emissions reductions - and energy resilience in island communities - and choice, affordability and economic development
Good afternoon – I hope the start of September finds you all well.
We understand you will be hearing about energy and access to energy as it may relate to the gas distribution system and adoption of the Zero Carbon Step Code.
As always, I am here on the island and will be with you all week at UBCM to chat about energy and what FortisBC has done and is doing to help BC meet our collective climate and emissions reduction objectives.
Please reach out to me any time for a conversation. I’m happy to meet here or set up a time to connect at UBCM, please reach out. My contact information is in my signature below.
Recently we’ve seen a few island local governments make decisions regarding significantly advanced adoption of the highest levels of the zero carbon step code. It’s important to note that these decisions have been made without engagement with FortisBC, a major provider of energy to the homes, businesses and transportation sectors of these communities. Community engagement has also been very short and exclusive, not including a full range of residents and businesses who will be impacted by these decisions.
The immediate response to the latest decision in Nanaimo to follow suit is palpable. I encourage North Cowichan and all island and coastal communities to take a pragmatic and whole approach to making informed and sustainable decisions that will impact access to and the availability of low carbon energy options in your community. Please lets connect to ask all the big energy questions and create solutions that support a better North Cowichan.
FortisBC knows energy
As the largest energy provider in British Columbia, Fortis BC is uniquely positioned to understand energy – energy demand, use and distribution. We are committed to delivering the cleanest energy possible through our systems to British Columbians. Through both our electric and gas distribution systems.
FortisBC shares and supports North Cowichan’s commitment to climate action, to making significant reductions in energy use and GHG emissions.
We are well on our way to achieving our 2019 commitment to reducing our collective customers’ GHG emissions 30% by 2030. We are now setting targets to 2050 and beyond to net zero.
We were the first gas utility in North America to bring renewable natural gas as a low carbon energy option to homes and businesses.
Through collaboration with FortisBC and connection to our gas distribution system, many local governments on the island are achieving emission reductions in municipal facilities and additional benefits to air quality through the use of CNG for transit and waste haulers.
To date we have purchased and secured contracts to make ~18PJ of renewable natural gas (RNG) available to our customers. This is very similar to the amount of electricity we anticipate will be delivered by Site C, but at a fraction of the cost.
Is Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) low carbon?
*from BC Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy and US Energy Information Administration (2020)
The current burner tip carbon intensity of RNG is 0.29gCO2e/MJ and the current RNG portfolio lifecycle emissions are -22gCO2e/MJ. This is below B.C.’s carbon intensity threshold for low-carbon gases of 36.4 gCO2e/MJ set out in the 2021 B.C. Hydrogen Strategy.
RNG can be made from waste in island communities, farms and forests. This improves resiliency and reduces our dependance on off-island energy production. FortisBC partners with and purchases RNG from producers. RNG allows local governments and investors to participate in the economy of low carbon energy.
Our gas and electric systems are each part of integrated energy grids, connecting them to other producers and users across North America. Today, not every Joule of gaseous energy in our system is RNG, and not every Watt of electricity delivered to homes and businesses has been generated at a dam in-province. High electricity demand on Vancouver Island has commonly been supported by the generation of electricity from natural gas. FortisBC is committed to transitioning our gas utility to deliver the low carbon energy needed to support a better BC.
What about cooking with natural gas?
We’re aware of concerns raised surrounding emissions from natural gas stoves in the home. Analyses of indoor air quality are complex, and factors such as ventilation, room size, equipment maintenance and others can drastically impact results. All cooking creates airborne emissions. That’s why range hoods are so important. Health Canada recommends using the range hood whenever cooking, regardless of whether cooking with gas or electricity. Ventilation is the easiest and most effective way to best mitigate emissions arising from cooking.
What about island communities without access to FortisBC’s distribution system?
If you take a quick look at homes and businesses in island communities that are not connected to FortisBC’s gas distribution system, you will see that many are not happily running all electric energy systems. Propane plays a significant role in meeting the energy demands of these communities.
Propane has a carbon emission factor greater than traditional natural gas, almost 20x higher than BC Hydro electricity and almost 200x higher than RNG (see graph above).
Higher and more frequent peak energy demands
Each year we are experiencing new highs on peak demand days. These are the days of highest energy demands, and we currently benefit from two large and robust energy delivery systems that support one another, especially during winter peak demand days.
Homes with a diversified energy portfolio share the load, between gas and electric usage. A home with an electric heat pump, gas fireplace and hot water heating, provide all the benefits of space heating and cooling and access to cooking and heating even when the power is out. This sharing of the energy load is also more able to mitigate against electric use that would bump rates into Tier 2.
The gas delivery system is inherently better at responding to quick fluctuations in energy demand and flexing to deliver considerably more throughput. Our island electric system has seen recent strains from peak demand during the heat dome.
BC Hydro investigating damage to submarine cables that carry power to Vancouver Island (cbc.ca)
Extreme cold leads to record-breaking electricity demand for a second time this week (bchydro.com)
How will our energy delivery systems support the additional demands from space cooling and the transition to EV’s?
Electrification – a case study
For your review, I’ve attached the Kelowna Electrification Case Study where real data from FortisBC’s shared services area was to used to project the costs and identify the most pragmatic affordable approach to achieving emissions reductions while maintaining reliable and resilient delivery of energy. FortisBC’s gas and electric utilities provide energy to the City of Kelowna providing a unique opportunity to understand the full energy profile and study the impact and cost of electrification.
While the Study examines the extensive electricity infrastructure requirements and cost estimates associated with electrification in the City of Kelowna, Appendix A describes other challenges faced with respect to building new energy infrastructure in BC. The discussion in Appendix A supports the conclusions that a deep electrification scenario is not plausible within the rapid timeframe required to meet Provincial carbon emission reduction targets and that utilizing both the existing electricity and gas infrastructure in BC will be needed to meet these targets.”
The path to a low- or no-carbon future will require incredible investments in innovation and infrastructure. Our caution is against creating bold, imbalanced energy policy that limits or prevents access to a robust and available energy delivery system that will likely prove invaluable in our long term ability to support affordable, diverse and resilient communities.
Thank you for taking the time to thoroughly review and contemplate the ideas presented in this email. Your consideration and engagement are greatly appreciated, and I am eager to engage in any further discussions or inquiries that may arise.
Carmen LeBlanc
Manager, Indigenous Relations
Community & Indigenous Relations Manager
1027 Langford Parkway, Victoria BC V9B 0A5
T: 250.380.5738 C: 250.883.5044
Note: They had technical issues at that meeting so in some videos you will not see the speaker.
JOE SPEAKING TO COUNCIL :
ADRIENNE SPEAKING :
PAUL SPEAKING:
DAVID SPEAKS:
SHEILA SPEAKS:
If you want to watch the delegation we spoke against, see below. You can skip the delegation if you so choose, and go straight to the Q&A period by skipping 10 min ahead.
THIS IS NOT OVER! This delegation was just heard, and questions were asked.
This whole plan is going to staff who will then bring it back and we can pretty much guarantee that they will bring it forward as a recommendation and ask the council to vote “yes”. This is supposed to happen at the end of September.
We will keep you appraised because when the recommendation comes forward the room needs to be filled with those who oppose this restriction on the freedom of choice that council should have no part in exacting, especially when based on flawed science.
Sincerely,
COAP