Let’s start with the name “natural” gas. We all love natural things, right? Well, the gas industry has been leveraging the “natural” in “natural” gas to promote a dangerous and harmful fuel for more than a century, when in fact it’s a known climate-killer, mostly made up of methane, which is 86 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO²) in the near term. We should really be calling it: fossil gas.

Here’s the thing that’s frustrating the gas industry, though: right now we have affordable and reliable solutions for heating and cooling our homes and warming our water which don’t take a toll on the climate, environment, and our health.

Technologies like electric heat pumps means we don’t need to use antiquated gas furnaces. So, gas companies have been on an aggressive campaign to advertise their product and keep you a customer. In fact, a lot of the money that you spend on their product they in turn spend on people whose goal is to convince you to keep buying gas to keep their profit margins up.

That’s why we have launched a counter-campaign to pull away the friendly mask the gas industry is hiding behind and expose the disinformation it’s been pedaling. Our campaign is about debunking industry misinformation and setting the record straight on the truth about gas in our homes.

Greenwashing gas

Greenwashing is a common practice by gas companies who want to make their product appealing to consumers who are increasingly concerned about the climate.

In Ontario, residents and environmental organizations have alleged that Enbridge Gas is running a disinformation campaign targeting potential customers, claiming its product is “clean” and “low carbon” – which couldn’t be further from the truth. An official complaint was submitted about its misleading advertising materials to the Competition Bureau Canada which is now examining the case. Enbridge also outright made up numbers to create the impression that its product is more green and affordable than it is.

In B.C., Stand.earth and two residents have sued FortisBC for “greenwashing,” alleging that the company has broken consumer protection laws. FortisBC has been telling consumers that continuing to use gas for home heating is good for the climate – which we know it is not. FortisBC is selling a small amount of so-called renewable natural gas to consumers and making promises to decarbonize the gas system in the future, which confuses consumers and slows down the transition to existing affordable climate solutions like electric heat pumps.

Beyond releasing misleading information to the general public, the gas industry has also been influencing municipal climate policies – in a dishonest way.

Secretive meddling in municipal decision-making

“Astroturf” groups disguise themselves as grassroots organizations – you know, organizations made up of, and powered by, people like you and me – but are in fact entirely created and funded by the fossil fuel industry.

One such group is Voice for Energy (don’t you love the use of “voice” here, like it’s the voice of the people, not the voice of the gas industry). Voice for Energy doesn’t “voice” who gives them cash, or how much they receive, but it’s been revealed that its ads are paid for by the Canadian Gas Association. This front group has been running ads in British Columbia (B.C.) to try to stop the passage of municipal rules for new buildings to use clean heating technologies like heat pumps instead of polluting gas furnaces

BC CADE draws heavily from the Voice for Energy’s communications strategy and has managed to convince a group of businesses that the need for building electrification will somehow undermine their ability to operate – which is utterly untrue. This is a lobbying group which has turned up in a few B.C. municipalities and tried to crowbar gas-centered building policies into local government decisions.

The Canadian Energy Centre, funded by Alberta’s Conservative government, is an ad agency with no other purpose than to promote oil and gas to Canadians. In B.C. they spammed Nanaimo’s city council with over 2000 letters to try to reverse a responsible policy aimed at transitioning to non-polluting heating sources.

What’s clear from all of these examples is that heavily fossil fuel funded associations and lobby groups are hard at work trying to convince us that we need gas. They know that as long as gas flows into buildings, cash flows into CEO’s pockets.

A consortium of global gas companies have even produced an international playbook to target different regions of the world with the most convincing (false) arguments to stop the transition away from gas.

That’s why we’re stepping in with a campaign of our own – to help quash this corporate spin machine and pave the way to a clean energy transition.

Everyone can be a part of the solution by sharing the truth far and wide!