Enbridge natural-gas promotion sparks outrage

Climate activists file complaint about claims that gas is the cheapest way to heat homes and is ‘clean’ and ‘low carbon’

Elizabeth Carswell doesn’t understand why anyone would want to pay thousands of dollars to get a natural gas hookup when a cheaper, environmentally friendly heat pump would do a better job for less.

She would know, she’s had one for more than 25 years.

With the increasing frequency of extreme weather, including a recent tornado and the forest fire smoke that blanketed the skies this summer, she was surprised to learn that some of her neighbours in Sandford, a town on the edge of Uxbridge, are nevertheless signing up as Enbridge Gas expands into the community.

“We can’t keep on burning fossil fuels and contributing to climate change. We know it,” she said. “It’s absolutely wrong to convert to natural gas. Why is anyone doing this in 2023?”

In communities from Bobcaygeon to Scugog, Enbridge Gas has been distributing marketing materials to convince homeowners to connect to its expanded natural gas pipelines, telling them it’s the cheapest way to heat their homes and that it’s “clean” and “low carbon.”

These flyers are now the subject of a false-advertising complaint filed with the Competition Bureau.

“Enbridge is misleading customers into connecting to its gas system through deceptive marketing,” states the complaint filed by a coalition of environmental groups, including Environmental Defence, Ontario Clean Air Alliance and Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

“Enbridge knows … that gas is not the most cost-effective way to heat homes, and that gas is a potent greenhouse gas that contributes far more to climate change when used to heat homes in comparison to electricity,” the complaint says.

“With each week that passes, more customers sign up to convert their heating to gas instead of purchasing a high-efficiency electric heat pump, resulting in unnecessarily high energy costs and carbon pollution to the detriment of consumers, competition and the climate.”

The Enbridge Gas materials fail to tell potential customers that natural gas — which is mostly methane — is responsible for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions in Ontario, according to the complaint, and ignore the fact that heat pumps have been found to be significantly cheaper to operate.

The complaint is the latest in a spate of greenwashing claims made to the Competition Bureau, including two filed last year against the Canadian Gas Association for suggesting that natural gas is “sustainable” and another alleging RBC’s claims to fight climate change are false.

A subsidiary of Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., which will soon be North America’s largest natural gas utility, Enbridge Gas is expanding its pipeline network to communities on the fringes of the GTA and must convince residents to pay thousands of dollars to buy new furnaces so they can convert their houses for natural gas heating.

In flyers, community meetings and local and online advertising, Enbridge states that switching to natural gas could save homeowners up to 54 per cent on heating costs.

The environmental groups cite research showing that new customers in a natural gas expansion community (who must pay a surcharge on their natural gas for up to 40 years) would actually save $20,000 over the 15-year lifetime of their equipment by switching to a heat pump instead.

“For a long time, methane gas was the cheapest way to heat homes. However, electric cold-climate heat pumps are now much cheaper than gas for consumers,” states the complaint. “Customers are very vulnerable to deceptive advertising about the benefits of gas heating because most are not aware of heat pumps or the advancements that have been made in heat pumps in recent years.”

In response to questions, an Enbridge Gas spokesperson said the cost of a heat pump can vary greatly between houses.

“As such, a simple comparison of the technology costs alone can be misleading,” Andrea Stass said in an email. “Based on our analysis, conversion to a high-efficiency electric cold-climate air source heat pump configuration could be more costeffective for space heating in some situations … whereas in others, a natural gas solution would be more cost-effective,” she wrote.

According to filings, Enbridge expects to connect more than 100,000 households to its natural gas network in the next three years. The environmental groups are asking the Competition Bureau to require Enbridge to send price comparisons between natural gas and heat pumps to all of them.

“Enbridge is trying to push gas into more communities and trying to hook more customers up to gas at a time when we’re in a climate emergency and we should be moving away from burning fossil fuels,” said Keith Brooks, programs director at Environmental Defence.

“If you’re going to be installing new HVAC, you’ve got to be going for a heat pump. It’ll save you money. It’s better for the climate. Every time we install a new gas furnace, that’s an appliance that will be burning fossil fuels for a decade or more.”

After learning about the new pipeline coming to Sandford, Carswell started doing research online. She was surprised to learn that the network expansions aren’t economical, so the provincial government authorized a $1 per month surcharge on all 3.8 million Enbridge Gas customers (totalling more than $45 million per year) to pay for the new pipelines.

“Why are we facilitating the expansion of natural gas?” she asked. “You can have affordable utilities without increasing your emissions.”

Carswell has been heating her home with a heat pump since the 1990s and stands by the technology as cheaper — and better for the climate — than natural gas.

In materials filed with the Ontario Energy Board, Enbridge Gas compared the costs of different heating systems in Sandford, but claimed there was “no data available” for heat pumps.

“That’s absolutely misleading,” Carswell said. Since Enbridge Gas administers the government grants for heat pumps, “they know exactly how much they cost. They should be telling people about the grants.”

Programs offered through the federal and provincial governments now offer $10,000 to homeowners switching to a heat pump.

‘‘ With each week that passes, more customers sign up to convert their heating to gas instead of purchasing a high-efficiency electric heat pump,

resulting in unnecessarily high energy costs and carbon pollution to the detriment of consumers, competition and the climate.

COMPLAINT FILED WITH COMPETITION

BUREAU ABOUT ENBRIDGE