What principles should the…

What principles should the government provide to the OEB to help inform the Board’s ongoing development of natural gas connection policies?

• The OEB should recognize that we are not going to meet any climate targets regarding the reduction of greenhouse gases if we continue to use natural gas. All policies should bolster the use of solar in communities across Ontario and wind power generation in communities and off shore.

What role should natural gas play in supporting energy affordability and customer choice in residential and small commercial applications (e.g., space and water heating)?

• Natural gas should be at the bottom of the list for sources of energy along with the hazardous to our health nuclear energy. The OEB, and the government, need to provide financial support for the use of alternative energies.

What role should natural gas play in supporting economic development in Ontario’s industrial and agricultural sectors, including those processes that may be difficult to electrify?

• The OEB and Ontario government should support the development of alternative energies in all sectors with financial support. Natural gas should be one of the last sources for power to be supported and sectors that “require” it should be incentivized to change their processes to superior sources of power, like solar or wind.

What role should the government play in supporting and expediting the rational expansion of the natural gas system to make home heating more affordable and support economic growth in communities that are seeking natural gas service?

• There is no such thing as rational expansion of the natural gas system. The government should provide deep financial support to all residential property owners at all levels to change to alternate sources for home heating. Communities need to be incentivized to seek other sources for home heating.

For natural gas expansion projects receiving government support, should the approvals processes be streamlined to support affordable home heating for Ontarians? In what ways?

• The government should not support natural gas expansion projects. And if they do the approvals process should be so onerous that projects will seek other methods. The government has lots of experience devising onerous approvals processes.

What role should natural gas play in supporting power system security and resiliency?

• The sooner the Ontario government recognizes that people – not corporations – want to use power that is not leading to climate disaster, the better. The government could then put their resources to to building system security and resilience.

What role should natural gas play in offsetting higher GHG-emitting fuel sources?

• The sooner we stop using natural gas and transition to renewables the better. There is no long-term role for natural gas.

What are the challenges and opportunities for enhanced energy efficiency, adoption of clean fuels (e.g., RNG, Hydrogen) and emission reduction methods (e.g., carbon capture and storage) to lower emissions in the natural gas system?

• Challenges are related to financial and political/policy costs when changing from legacy systems to new systems. Some changes to help lower emissions are cost intensive, which is unfortunate as Ontario is still not finished paying off the first round of nuclear energy installations. Other challenges may include retrofitting old processes.