Renewable Natural Gas!?

“Renewable Natural Gas” the Fortis ad read.

I was reading a story on the local newspaper website and the banner ad above caught my eye.

Renewable natural gas!? To say I was skeptical would be a grand understatement. On investigation it turns out they are referring to biomethane. Fortis residential customers in certain areas who do not have contracts with independent gas marketers can opt to pay a small premium of $0.53 per gigajoule and in return Fortis will inject biomethane equal to 10% of the customer’s gas use into the system.

Biomethane is produced from wastes and is considered carbon-neutral in BC. Customers who sign up for the renewable natural gas program with Fortis get a 10% reduction in carbon tax on their bill. In practice it could be argued that biomethane used this way is better than carbon neutral. The biomethane displaces natural gas that the customer would have burned, and the gas naturally produced by landfills, agricultural waste and wastewater treatment is upgraded and used, rather than just escaping into the atmosphere. Fortis is planning to expand the program as more biomethane becomes available.

Fortis says the extra cost will amount to about $4 per month for the average household. Seems like a small price to encourage use of waste gas, cut carbon emissions and perhaps help reduce, even if only in a tiny way, domestic demand for fracking.

I signed up. I guess sometimes those on-line ads do work.
For more info see Fortis BC