Dear Minister Todd Smith,…

Dear Minister Todd Smith,
Happy Spring! I hope that you and your family are doing well.
I write to ask that the Ontario government reconsider its declared intent to overrule the decision of the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) to subsidize gas expansion in new housing developments by having existing customers pay for the expansion. This potential decision would be in favour of the gas company alone, and would act against affordability, stranded asset risk, and our children’s health and future. I support the OEB direction.
On December 21 the OEB ordered that new infrastructure to put methane gas in homes be paid for up front by developers, rather than paid off over about 40 years by existing customers through higher rates.
The OEB’s decision is very significant as the energy transition, and how it impacts the future of the gas system, was a major focus of a gas rates application. The OEB concluded that climate change policy is driving an energy transition away from methane gas to electricity that gives rise to a stranded asset risk, and the usual way of doing business is not sustainable.
The OEB ruling would make building new homes more affordable because they could be built to use only one type of energy infrastructure, electricity, and not require a second. New homes could be built more quickly by not installing gas lines and installing heat pumps and induction stoves instead.
Recent research on electrification suggests that homes using cold climate electric heat pumps would cost less to heat than those burning methane. In addition, electric induction stoves can boil water faster than gas without introducing poisonous methane gas into homes.
Reversing the OEB ruling could result in building methane gas infrastructure that will take about 40 years to pay for; infrastructure that will still be delivering fossil fuels in 2064, 14 years beyond the time when the world has agreed to have achieved net zero fossil fuel consumption; infrastructure that will be made obsolete by the ongoing energy transition.
Who stands to gain by letting the OEB decision stand? Existing gas customers; the pocket books of new homeowners; the health of new homeowners; the environment. Who stands to gain from a reversal? The gas company.
Personally, I am researching air-source and ground-source heat pumps, and hope to find an affordable induction stove. Ordinary citizens are doing what we can to reduce our emissions. I want you to do the same with my taxpayer dollars. As our biggest province, Ontario should be a leader - showing other provinces how to future-proof buildings and assets, not how to protect the profits of a dying industry. How can we attract more business to this province when we have backward-looking policies?
It would be a mistake to overturn the OEB decision. Minister Smith, please reconsider your decision and instead allow for a solution that is less expensive for homeowners, healthier for families, avoids contributing to the buildup of Greenhouse Gases that drive climate change, and shows Canada and the world that Ontario means (future-proofed) business.

I am removing my name because your instructions state that my comments will not be included in the materials if there is any name or address. Hope I read that correctly.