Greenwashing lawsuit accuses FortisBC of misleading consumers

“FortisBC has a near monopoly on the supply of gas to homes in the province and stands to benefit by encouraging people to buy new gas furnaces and lock themselves into using gas for decades,” Stand said in a release. “FortisBC emphasizes its renewable natural gas program to consumers, but almost all of the gas they deliver to British Columbians is from fossil fuels.”

Azevedo said the notice of civil claim under B.C.’s consumer protection law, the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Act, accuses FortisBC of:

• Advertising its RNG as originating in B.C., when about 85 per cent of it is purchased from outside the province;

• Presenting its RNG supply as a climate solution “while not mentioning that 90 per cent of the gas in their system is fossil gas”;

• Misleading consumers by claiming gas “will always be the less expensive way to heat,” when electric heat pumps are more efficient than gas furnaces and provide cooling as well as heat;

• Telling consumers they can help meet climate targets by connecting to the gas network when 10 per cent of the province’s emissions, and 50 per cent in cities like Vancouver, come from gas heating;

• Representing RNG as a certified carbon-neutral product “when they don’t have a certificate showing that.”

“Whether online, watching TV, listening to the radio, or going to municipal council meetings, British Columbians have been seeing and hearing FortisBC’s  promotion of its renewable natural gas program and promise the climate benefits of staying connected to gas,” Ecojustice says on its landing page for the case. But the utility’s “words don’t match up with its actions. The company claims to care about climate action and affordability, but it continues to add 10,000 new gas consumers a year while falsely advertising gas as a climate-friendly source of home heating.”

Days before the case was filed, FortisBC announced that the BC Utilities Commission had approved a plan to designate a portion of all its customers’ gas supplies as RNG.

“The approval of this application marks a new era for British Columbians’ ability to access renewable and low-carbon energy,” said Doug Slater, the company’s vice president, Indigenous relations and regulatory affairs, in a March 20 release. “It is also a step forward for FortisBC’s overall efforts to decarbonize the gas system, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and help meet provincial CleanBC Roadmap targets while maintaining energy choice for customers.”

High-Pressure Tactics

Stand Senior Campaigns Director Liz McDowell said B.C. is “way off track” on its decarbonization targets for the buildings sector. “Building homes right the first time” by equipping them with heat pumps, rather than gas connections, “will significantly reduce our climate pollution” while preventing costly renovations down the road, she added.

But in the two years that she’s worked with community advocates to encourage municipal policies that require or encourage that shift, McDowell said she’s been “shocked to see FortisBC representatives engaging in high-pressure tactics”, spreading what she called “misinformation” to all the province’s mayors and councils on the environmental impact of gas and the availability of RNG.

“This greenwash has the result of confusing consumers and decision-makers and delaying climate action when we have no time to waste,” she told media, adding that the company’s messaging includes images “trying to insinuate that RNG is produced from local farms, landfills, and wastewater plants.” In one presentation, when a local councillor asked where the RNG would come from, she said a FortisBC spokesperson responded that the company’s modelling showed 100 per cent of its gas coming from low-carbon, local sources—at some point in the future.

McDowell said those practices “fit into a global pattern” of gas companies pushing to expand their markets, despite “irrefutable science” pointing to the need for a rapid transition off fossil fuels.

“We don’t want any financial gain from this case,” she said. “We just want FortisBC to be forced to stop spreading this misinformation and start telling the truth.”

Goldman said she joined the lawsuit because she was concerned about the climate impacts of gas heating.

“I was really excited about RNG when I saw it advertised by FortisBC,” she said. “I thought it was a great idea.” But when she asked how the utility could assure any one customer they were getting a 100 per cent renewable product, “they informed me it was impossible,” she recalled, “despite the company advertising that consumers would be able to use it in their homes. The truth is that more than 90 per cent of the gas in the system is sourced from fracked gas in northern B.C. and Alberta,” resulting in an end product that is “incompatible with a safe climate future.”

Dearden said he had “witnessed first-hand the greenwashing carried out by FortisBC” through his work as a sustainable homebuilder. “It should not be up to residential home designers to inform people about the true nature of these substances they’re bringing into their homes.”

Nanaimo councillor Paul Manly recalled what he said was a successful effort by FortisBC to discourage the city’s mayor and council from implementing B.C.’s Zero-Carbon Step Code, claiming the new code would block homeowners’ access to RNG from local landfills, wastewater, and green waste that would carry one-tenth the carbon footprint of electricity. When he asked company representatives whether any of the gas would be supplied locally, Manly said, “of course they couldn’t guarantee that there was any.”

As the local process unfolded, “I saw how FortisBC’s false claims created confusion for local residents about the best way to reduce carbon pollution,” he said. “A lot of misinformation has been spun out of this, and it creates problems for politicians when you’re trying to do the right thing.”

Protecting Consumers

Azevedo said Stand, Goldman, and Dearden are suing for performance, rather than compensation, because that’s the way the province’s consumer protection law is set up.

B.C. recognized long ago “that there is a public interest issue with deceptive marketing,” she explained. Beyond the risk that individual consumers might lose money, “it’s actually a problem for the public when there is misinformation out there.” So the legislation allows a course of action for people who want to “protect their fellow consumers” and try to put an end to deceptive practices.

“It’s really costly to do retrofits,” Goldman added. “If somebody is coerced or confused and puts in gas appliances, and then in a few years the government says they have to electrify, it is really confusing and expensive to make that change.”

Rather than building new gas pipelines, she said, FortisBC “should be putting all of that money into electrification and saving homeowners the extra cost of retrofitting later. It’s just really unfair to consumers and homeowners to make them do that.”

As a company that sells electricity as well as gas, McDowell said FortisBC could meet that challenge and align with the transition off carbon by repositioning itself as an energy company, rather than a gas company.

“We need to be transitioning away from fossil fuels entirely, not trying to find low-carbon sources of fuel to try to greenwash and continue to push fossil fuels,” she said. “I don’t think there’s a future for a gas company, but there’s absolutely a long-term future for energy companies. If I were an investor, that’s what I would be thinking about.”

In an emailed statement, FortisBC said it “disagrees with the allegations contained in the claim and maintains that it has conducted itself at all times in accordance with its legal obligations. FortisBC takes climate change very seriously and is taking action to help B.C. meet its climate goals.”

The company’s senior communications advisor did not answer questions from The Energy Mix about the proportion of RNG in its gas supply, the proportion that is source from within the province, whether the product is certified carbon-neutral, whether FortisBC has been telling customers that gas is cheaper than alternatives, and how its pricing compares with the lifetime cost of an electric heat pump. Nor did the spokesperson comment on whether Fortis has been discouraging municipal councils from restricting gas connections in new housing, and if so, on what basis.