Forget electric vehicles – a roadmap has been unveiled to expand the use of natural gas-powered vehicles across Canada.
On Friday, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver met in Ottawa with the country’s top natural gas producers and distributors to launch a new report that provides a foundational framework for the future expansion of natural gas fleets throughout the country.
“Natural gas has a very prominent place in Canada’s energy and economic future,” said Oliver. “The government of Canada is committed to working together with the natural gas industry to encourage innovation and job creation across Canada and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Although not necessarily as environmentally friendly as electric vehicles, natural gas has been hailed as a cleaner alternative to diesel and traditional gasoline vehicles.
In B.C., Surrey recently became Canada’s first municipality to require the use of lower-emission natural gas trucks for residential refuse collection.
Waste Management in Coquitlam has 20 compressed natural gas trucks picking up garbage and recyclables throughout the Lower Mainland.
In Abbotsford, Vedder Transport has invested in 50 liquefied natural gas-powered vehicles that it says are cost-efficient and cleaner burning.
Natural gas giants such as FortisBC and Encana (TSX:ECA) have partnered with other in the industry to form a group called the Canadian Natural Gas Vehicle Alliance (CNGVA) to advance the use of gas in vehicles.
All this comes amid a glut of natural gas supply throughout the continent, largely driven by new unconventional and shale sources of natural gas.
The U.S. is believed to have enough natural gas resources to supply its needs for up to a century, leaving Canada, which also has massive supplies, looking to export the commodity overseas to Asia where it commands higher prices. (See “Domestic market needed to exploit B.C.’s gas riches” –issue 1129; June 14-20.)
Unfortunately, liquefied natural gas export terminals in B.C. are still a few years away, forcing producers and distributors to look at developing domestic markets.
Increasing the use of natural gas in trucks, ferries, buses and other heavy traffic is seen as the key to an emerging domestic market.
“Greater use of natural gas in transportation is a win-win for Canada,” said Encana vice-president Wayne Geis. “Natural gas is an affordable, lower-emission fuel and industry is making significant investments to bring it into the transportation market.”
The CNGVA’s new roadmap includes the creation of a bilingual national website, the establishment of two regional resource hubs to support natural gas fleets and new codes and standards for vehicles.
At press time, natural gas prices were down 3% to $3.34 per million British thermal units.
Joel McKay
@jmckaybiv