Is natural gas going to be a thing of the past in B.C. homes? CTF worries about language in budget
Posted February 21, 2019 6:10 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – Some language in the B.C. budget has a spending watchdog worried about what road the province is on, when it comes to natural gas.
Kris Sims with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation says while the province is pushing exporting LNG — something her organization supports — they’re also talking about it like a dirty word if it’s in your furnace.
She’s worried this means homeowners will pay the price.
“In order to make up for the perceived sins of that carbon footprint, I have a feeling they’re going to start putting the squeeze on us — on British Columbians — to not use this boon, to not use this natural gas because they are trying to make up for the fact that we are exporting it.”
She wonders if this is the start of a slippery slope to phasing out natural gas in B.C. homes.
“I think they’re floating it. I think they’re seeing if they can, frankly, get away with this kind of move. And also calling it a ‘fossil fuel’ — technically, yes, you could argue that it’s a fossil fuel it is a natural gas — but in the energy world, calling something a fossil fuel is kind of dissing it.”
The province has budgeted $900 million for the CleanBC plan, which includes incentives to retrofit gas heat to electric heat pumps.
