Comment re ERO#019-9501…

Comment re ERO#019-9501

Given that the International Energy Agency warned a couple of years ago that the world can’t afford to expand fossil fuel production,
Given that the world experienced the hottest year on record in 2024,
Given that the warming that the earth has experienced contributed significantly to the increase in devastating weather-related disasters, reflected in insurance payouts in Canada last year of $8.4 billion (compare that to the pre-2009 average of $400,000)

I submit that the province of Ontario should look at ways to manage a systematic reduction of fossil gas use. “Natural” gas is primarily methane, which is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the short term.

We’ve already reduced the competitive advantage of our mostly clean electricity grid significantly. In 2017, it was 96% non-emitting. It’s now around 87% and falling.

Energy Affordability: Our natural gas connection policies should afford clear choice for homeowners to reject gas hook-ups and instead install heat pumps, which would reduce energy demand for cooling in summers as they provide very energy efficient cooling – much better than air conditioners. Our cold-climate heat pump also provides lower cost heating than the gas furnace it replaced. And that is consistent with studies on the issue that show savings of about 30% over natural gas heating.

What role should the government play in expanding natural gas? The province should be subsidizing cold-climate heat pumps instead of Enbridge, which is making billions while increasing its emissions.

The government should be subsiding roof-top solar for homes and businesses, and building more energy storage facilities like the one set to open in Norfolk County this year – which will be the largest in the country. This would significantly reduce or even eliminate the need to expand the use of natural gas in Ontario and would help smooth out the energy supply. We could also be open to solar farms on non-productive land, and on land where agriculture and solar could co-exist (ie shade crops under panels).

Ontario should be paying the owners of solar systems for the extra energy their panels produce, to encourage more homeowners to install solar. That has the benefit of people producing their own energy, and significantly reducing demand from the grid.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage has been proven, thus far, to be ineffective in reducing emissions at the scale necessary.
Planning on more nuclear is a problem, since we need our emissions to fall rapidly, and nuclear builds take a considerable amount of time and are very expensive. Solar is now the cheapest source of new power almost everywhere in the world. Costs have dropped 90% in the last

decade. As a result, the world is adding the solar equivalent of a nuclear reactor every day at a fraction of the cost, figures from Bloomberg show. If we want to reduce energy costs, we need to invest much more in solar.
Planning for more natural gas use is going in exactly the opposite direction we should be going in.
Thank you.