British Columbia's Utilities Commission (BCUC) has concluded that no major changes to its definition of renewable natural gas (RNG) are warranted, following an inquiry into whether existing rules adequately account for greenhouse gas reductions from biomethane purchased outside the province.
The final report, published on 26 May 2026, confirms that public utilities may continue to acquire biomethane and its associated environmental attributes from out-of-province sources — including locations with no physical pipeline connection to BC — provided those attributes are transferred to customers and retired at the point of sale.
The panel ruled that "displacement" of fossil gas, as required under the amended Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Clean Energy) Regulation, does not necessitate physical displacement within BC's pipeline system.
The inquiry was partly triggered by environmental groups including Stand.earth, which argued that purchasing biomethane produced elsewhere and only notionally delivered to BC customers has no demonstrable effect on the province's actual GHG emissions.
The panel acknowledged the concern but said its role was to apply the law as enacted, not to assess the policy's real-world effectiveness.
On compliance, the panel found existing measures — which rely primarily on contractual enforcement of environmental attribute rights under biomethane purchase agreements — sufficient to guard against double-counting, noting no evidence of specific violations on the record.
The BCUC said it would monitor the development of the Canadian Low-Emission Energy Registry (CLEER), a forthcoming central repository for production data and environmental attributes from lower-emission energy sources across Canada, and may revisit its RNG definition once the registry is operational.
British Columbia regulator upholds RNG definition
