The BCUC ruled that FortisBC can continue to sell RNG to customers who choose it and who pay part of the added cost. The company can also blend RNG into the gas that it provides to all customers, making their RNG purchase mandatory.

It cannot, however, designate 100 per cent of new customers’ gas supply as RNG while spreading the cost of that program across all existing customers, the BCUC decided.

“They’ve made the right decisions as far as I’m concerned,” said Eoin Finn, director of research for the group My Sea to Sky and an intervenor in the BCUC review. “This is terrible news for Fortis, if you are a Fortis lover. I am not.”

FortisBC will have trouble meeting provincial climate targets without making its product too expensive for customers, Finn said. The province requires the company to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and cities are using the Zero Carbon Step Code and other building rules to discourage or ban all-fossil gas hookups.

I had a good chuckle at “This is terrible news for Fortis, if you are a Fortis lover. I am not.” This sounds like good news all around to me.