Natural gas better than electricity
Re: Prepare to be electrified, Action plan: Zero- emission cars will soon be a much more common sight on our streets, Opinion, April 7
So, more vehicles will be going electric, “since B. C.’ s electricity is overwhelmingly clean and renewable.”
What next, have homeowners turf their natural gas furnaces and water heaters and switch to electric?
Meanwhile BC Hydro wants to spend $ 8 billion on Site C to provide this clean and renewable energy, instead of building a $ 1.5- billion natural gas- fired power plant. Clean electricity is so expensive Hydro is spending $ 1.6 billion over the next 10 years in an attempt to curtail anticipated load growth by 66 per cent.
Increasing coal, oil and natural gas exports while B. C. charges its own citizens a hefty carbon tax on such fuels to discourage consumption is such hypocrisy.
B. C. will be awash in cheap natural gas for decades to come, according to those promoting LNG exports. BC Hydro should provide incentives to promote compressed natural gas ( CNG) vehicles instead of electric.
The carbon tax should be removed from natural gas to encourage homeowners to switch from electric to gas heating. And BC Hydro should build efficient gas- fired power plants to provide for future load growth, as is being done elsewhere in North America. This will save BC Hydro ratepayers billions of dollars in the years to come.
This article fails to draw a big enough circle around “emissionfree” electric vehicles. The vehicle may have no tailpipe and no direct emissions, but if you include the footprint from manufacture of the vehicle ( particularly the battery), and from the production of electricity to charge the battery, there are significant emissions. This is particularly true if you are in the provinces that have fossil fuel- fired power production. The emissions footprint of some electric vehicles’ manufacture can be so much higher than gasoline vehicles that it will take some years to break even on an emissions basis. Another example of “emissions-free” vehicles, if you draw your circle only around the bus, is the hydrogen- powered bus. With this circle, you ignore the fact that the major source of the hydrogen fuel is manufacturing from natural gas, with the major byproduct being carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
I am not arguing for or against electric or hydrogen vehicles, but rather for disclosure of the total picture.