Natural gas is a fossil gas. It is composed of methane and volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. Methane is a toxic greenhouse gas, a cause of climate change. VOCs are powerful air pollutants linked to premature death, respiratory and cardiac diseases, and cancers.
Enbridge is a giant corporation with profits of more than $17 billion. It owns the largest network of natural gas pipelines and is the largest provider of natural gas in North America. In addition to expanding its web of pipelines, Enbridge tries to perpetuate their use by advocating for ‘renewable natural gas’ as a ‘clean energy solution’. This is no solution. RNG is methane captured from landfills and other sources. It is still methane, with all of its poisonous properties.
Ford – A Dangerous Denier
European scientists recently issued a report on natural gas, advising that “climate change is progressing so fast that now we must focus on impacts within the next ten years. That’s why there is no alternative to replacing natural gas with renewables at once.”
And, in fact, that is what much of the world is doing. According to the International Energy Agency, global renewable electricity generation at the end of this decade is forecast to have increased by almost 90% from 2023, enough to meet the combined power demand of both China and the United States in 2030. But that’s not happening in Ontario, not with Doug Ford as our premier. In 2023, 13 per cent of our electricity was generated by natural gas. In 2017 it was just 4 per cent. Ford is planning to increase it to 27 per cent by 2040.
Fracking – Dirty, Dangerous and Wasteful
Most of Ontario’s fossil gas now comes from Pennsylvania and Ohio. It is mined by fracking. This involves blasting fluid deep below the surface to crack rock to release the gas. The fracking fluid uses huge amounts of water, toxic chemicals and sand. Pennsylvania has more than 200,000 fracking wells and each one consumes over 19 million gallons of freshwater annually on average. This risks the ecological degradation of the watersheds as well as the decline of water supply. (British Columbia is also undergoing a fracking frenzy, consuming vast amounts of fresh water in a province undergoing drought and abnormally dry conditions. Fracking is also causing earthquakes in northeastern B.C., with 34 of them in 2024 at magnitude 3 and above.)
The used hydraulic fluid bubbles back up to the surface as brine and contains hydrocarbons, heavy metals, salts and sometimes radioactive isotopes. It cannot safely be returned to its original watershed without treatment. What isn’t reused, is stored or spread on roads.
In addition to wasting huge amounts of fresh water, fracking can contaminate drinking water. Recent research on Pennsylvania wells has found that wells drilled within one kilometer of a public drinking water source was associated with an 11-13 per cent increase in the incidence of preterm births and low birth weight in infants exposed during gestation.
Fossil gas leaks at every stage, from extraction, storage, transmission, to use in homes. When it is burned, for example, in kitchen gas stoves, it produces cancer-causing fumes.
Bans on Fossil Gas
Because of its harmful properties, other jurisdictions are getting off fossil gas, for example:
- Vancouver has been phasing it out in new buildings since 2016, requiring use of zero-emissions equipment for space and water heating;
- the Metropolitan Community of Montreal, representing half of Quebec’s population, has banned its use in new small buildings by April 2025;
- Quebec is banning its use for all home heating by 2040, as part of its transition to renewable energy;
- New York State has banned it in all new buildings by 2029.
But the Ford government is expanding the use of fossil gas in every way it can. Ford is
- expanding the use of gas plants to generate electricity, even though wind and solar energy with battery storage is cheaper, healthier, quicker to build, and just as reliable;
- expanding gas use in home heating and cooling, even though all-electric cold climate heat pumps are safer, more efficient, and save more money; and
- expanding its use in industrial processes, for example to electrify steel mills, even though there are clean alternatives, such as green hydrogen.
With the improved technology and lower cost of wind, solar and battery storage, the world is moving to clean, renewable sources of energy. But not Ford. His energy policy for Ontario includes a clear and growing role for fossil gas.
Ford is looking out for his big business friend, Enbridge. He is not protecting Ontario. He is not looking out for our kids and grandchildren. We need a government that wants our children to have a safe future, is serious about lowering our energy bills, and is genuinely committed to protecting our health and environment.
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Moya Beall is a member of SCAN!’s Ontario Project and its Adaptation Working Group, Ford’s Bad Energy Choices Working Group, and a member of SCAN! Kawartha.
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