British Columbians are proud of our clean electricity story—and for good reason. With an abundance of hydro dams, nearly 95 per cent of the power generated inside B.C. comes with almost no greenhouse-gas emissions.
But there’s a wrinkle most people never see.
In both 2023 and 2024, about one-fifth of the electricity lighting our homes and charging our EVs didn’t come from our own dams. We bought it from the United States and Alberta—regions that rely heavily on natural-gas and even coal-fired generators.
Here’s the irony:
- We supply the fuel. B.C. natural gas is shipped south.
- They burn it to make electricity.
- We buy the electrons back. The carbon stays on another jurisdiction’s ledger, but the cost lands on ours.
Meanwhile, provincial policy bans new natural-gas power plants inside B.C. The result? We’ve outsourced both the emissions and the jobs that go with producing reliable electricity.
Cold-Snap Reality Check
When temperatures plunged on B.C.’s coldest day of 2024, natural gas delivered twice as much energy to British Columbians as the entire electrical grid. Replacing that surge with batteries is a fantasy: it would take the equivalent of four years of global EV-battery production just to cover one week of winter.
Watch the video to see exactly how the import loop works—and why it’s time to rethink what “green” really means for B.C.’s grid.
