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ACE EMBR GE CHAN S E M BE R H VAC MOR 2030 F P PR E .50 P
HEATING UP
HVAC industry addressing mounting challenges as 2030 targets loom BY TED McINTYRE
IN EARLY NOVEMBER, StormontDundas-South Glengarry MPP Jim McDonell, in partnership with Enbridge and Ontario Minister of Energy Todd Smith, announced that the residents of the Glendale subdivision of South Glengarry, near Cornwall, will have access to natural gas for their home heating needs within four years. Funded through the Natural Gas Expansion Program (created under the Access to Natural Gas Act, 2018), the ohba.ca
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project will see $2,352,112 allocated by the Province to expand natural gas service to approximately 77 homes and businesses in the community. “Affordable home heating is on the way,” announced Minister Smith. At the same time, the federal government was signing on to the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Natural gas is mostly methane, which has “more than 80 times the warming power of carbon
dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere,” according to the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington, D.C. And therein lies the dilemma: weaning off natural gas when it’s an inexpensive means of heating many Ontario homes—particularly at a time when the provincial government is coming up short in supporting energy-efficiency assistance programs. In its annual Canadian Provincial Energy Efficiency Scorecard, released in ONTARIO HOME BUILDER WINTER 2022
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