Drought-stricken British Columbia is quickly running out of hydroelectric power and needs affordable, dependable energy, but municipalities now ignoring renewable natural gas and natural gas are only making things worse—and more expensive for consumers.

Policies implemented just a few years ago, when BC was an electricity exporter, are now proving inadequate to the energy shortage facing the province.  

But despite the BC snowpacks that fill our massive dams being at their lowest level in 54 years, some municipal governments are accelerating effective bans on renewable natural gas, natural gas, and—in the future—hydrogen, putting our economy and jobs at risk.

Electricity is an enormous benefit, and BC has been blessed with some of North America’s most abundant rivers and most powerful hydroelectric dams.

Yet BC Hydro currently only supplies 19 per cent of the province’s energy needs, according to its own estimates.

And BC Hydro can no longer provide enough power internally, having to import $500 million in electricity from other provinces and the United States in 2023—after actually exporting $1 billion in electricity in 2022.

But with clear indications that 2024 will be as bad or even worse due to drought and low snowpacks, the $500 million in electricity imports could easily be matched again or exceeded—an expensive proposition at a time of high inflation.

What’s increasingly obvious is that banning all other energy sources in favour of 100 per cent electrification is an expensive and unwise bet on the future. Still, it’s one that several major BC municipalities—including Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, and Richmond—are making right now.

As a result, business and labour organizations are coming together to ring an alarm bell before it’s too late.

The BC Coalition for Affordable Dependable Energy (BC CADE), of which I am the director of, was formed in March to raise public awareness that municipal energy regulations adopted today are going to have a costly and detrimental, if not devastating, impact tomorrow.

One of the policies contributing to this challenge is the Zero Carbon Step Code, which was introduced by the Province last year to “improve buildings over time” and reach zero emissions from all new buildings by 2030 by moving to a focus on electrification in all new residential and commercial buildings.

The Coalition is not against electrification. But we do support allowing British Columbians to make wise decisions that will protect both their ability to heat their homes and run their businesses with dependable, affordable energy choices today and in the years ahead—and to support the transition towards a renewable energy future. 

The timing of that transition is critical. The problem is that several municipalities have jumped the gun and imposed regulations that would ignore other forms of energy in new builds years before they would be required to do so by the provincial legislation. Not only are these decisions premature as we grapple with serious electricity shortages and much higher costs, but they also create a confusing and complicated set of regulations across the province for home builders and contractors to deal with.

As Bridgitte Anderson, CEO and president of the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, put it: “We need a practical and coordinated approach, not a patchwork of rules that change when you cross a municipal boundary.”

The Coalition’s goal is to encourage municipalities considering an early dissolution of the use of renewable natural gas and natural gas for heating buildings and water and for stoves, fireplaces, and barbecues to take a hard look at our electricity shortage and looming higher costs before making an expensive and hard-to-reverse decision for their citizens.

The Coalition is also asking those municipalities that have already had early implementation of effective natural gas bans to reconsider them given the low water levels and hydroelectric shortages we are already facing—with more likely ahead.

Working together, we can transition to a renewable energy future that protects our economy, our jobs, and our environment. 

Bill Tieleman is the director of the BC Coalition for Affordable Dependable Energy.