12 March 2026

by Tom Hackney and Bill Andrews

Almost two months ago, BCSEA and the other interveners made their reply submissions in the BCUC’s Review of Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) Definition and Accounting. We still await the BCUC’s decision on further steps in the proceeding. The BCUC might issue a final report that will end the review, or it might issue a timetable for more input from interveners.

The review topics were framed by the BCUC panel in June 2025 as:

• whether the BCUC’s definition of RNG is consistent with the BC government’s regulations that require the BCUC to allow public utilities to acquire RNG to displace fossil gas, and 
• whether the BCUC’s RNG compliance requirements on gas utilities are sufficient to prevent any double-counting of GHG emissions reductions.

Four interveners – First Things First Okanagan, Force of Nature, My Sea to Sky and Stand Earth –argue that the BCUC should not allow BC gas utilities to acquire RNG from outside of BC. They say that out-of-province RNG, even though it displaces fossil gas used in BC, does not reduce BC GHG emissions, and that the GHG reductions from out-of-province RNG could potentially be double-counted in both BC and in the source jurisdiction. 

BCSEA maintains that the BC Government has determined that RNG, including out-of-province RNG, does reduce BC GHG emissions and that the BCUC is legally required to accept the supply contracts for out-of-province RNG that it has accepted (see our article Out-of-Province RNG: BCUC muddies the waters, August 28, 2025). Furthermore, BCSEA says that political opposition to out-of-province RNG should be addressed to the BC Government, that makes the regulations, not to the BCUC, that merely implements the regulations.