Environmental groups claim to have filed a complaint on Wednesday with the Consumer Protection Office to request an investigation into certain practices of the gas distributor Énergir. They consider that it makes “false or misleading representations” of one of its products, renewable natural gas (RNG).
The heart of the complaint is based on the fact that Énergir offers its customers to “consume” RNG, while this gas of renewable origin is mixed throughout the distribution network. Interested customers may, out of environmental conviction, pay a premium to buy RNG, but in reality they receive the same blend with a high fossil natural gas content as the rest of the subscribers.
According to the plaintiffs of the Let’s Get Out the Gas! — among which we find Greenpeace, Équiterre and the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment — Énergir presents information that “causes confusion”, which “ignores important facts” and which “distorts the meaning of information on the possibility of distinctly consuming GNR”.
Énergir has never hidden the way it distributes its GNR. Its website explains it clearly. Tuesday, before the filing of the complaint, the company pointed out that this distribution model was recognized by the competent authorities. “By attacking renewable energies, [certains groupes écologistes] go against their very raison d’être,” denounced Stéphanie Trudeau, a member of Énergir’s senior management.
In terms of the greenhouse effect, it matters little where the RNG is burned. The gas distributor has its RNG supply checked by the Bureau de normalization du Québec, which confirms that the volumes injected into the network match those sold to customers. The statement of purchases and sales is also submitted to the Régie de l’énergie du Québec for inspection.
The plaintiffs acknowledge that Énergir publicly asserts that its GNR buyers receive, in practice, the same gas mixture as the others. “However, this reality is only revealed on rare occasions and is not subject to nuance in [les] other representations […] of the gas company, they write in the complaint. According to them, it is necessary to judge the impression aroused “in the credulous and inexperienced consumer”.
Invoking the Consumer Protection Act, the plaintiffs notably accused Énergir of falsely “attributing a particular advantage to a good or service”, of “claiming that a good or service includes a particular part, component or ingredient and to “ignore an important fact”.
GNR is made up of the exact same molecule — methane (CH4) — than natural gas of fossil origin. Coming from organic residues, such as compostable waste and animal manure, it is part of a “short cycle” of carbon. Since other plants will quickly replace those that made its production possible, RNG is considered a low-carbon energy.
Last year, RNG represented only about 1% of the natural gas distributed in Quebec. This fraction will be expected to increase in the coming years. Quebec regulations require that in 2030, at least 10% of the natural gas distributed in the province be from a renewable source. Remember that, for its part, the fossil gas sold in Quebec, imported from Western Canada and the United States, comes largely from operations using hydraulic fracturing, a technology prohibited here.