The Peterborough Examiner e-edition

Natural gas expansion just adds more fossil fuel

Minister David Piccini: Congratulations on your new portfolio as minister of the environment, conservation and parks. We look forward to some good movement on climate change from you.

In this regard, we notice that the government has just promised $1,674,964 to expand natural gas delivery to 77 homes north of Peterborough city, at an average cost of $21,700 each.

The goal is to reduce the cost of energy low for the consumer, which it will if they are using either propane or oil for heating their buildings. Of course, it will still cost a homeowner about $6,000 to install a high-efficiency gas furnace.

However, heating of buildings is Canada’s third largest source of greenhouse gases, so we have no hope of meeting Canada’s reduction targets without reducing home use of fossil fuels.

A much better use of the government money is to subsidize air-source heat pumps, which can also greatly reduce the cost of home heating but produce very little greenhouse gases, and have a payback time of as little as five years for a home currently burning oil or propane.

Three different studies show the advantages of air-source heat pumps. Some air-source heat pumps will now work down to -30 C, and are roughly the cost of a gas furnace to buy and install — much cheaper than the $21,700 cost per building of expanding natural gas north of Peterborough.

If an incentive for installing heat pumps was provided provincewide, it would be an enormous boon to energy costs for most of rural Ontario and greatly reduce carbon emissions in the province.

Alan Slavin, Wallace Point Road

OPINION

en-ca

2021-07-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-13T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://thepeterboroughexaminer.pressreader.com/article/281646783144051

Toronto Star Newspapers Limited