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The Green Ledger, Part 2: Exiting the Pipeline

Published 9 April 2026

Énergir pocketed roughly half a billion US dollars from fossil gas infrastructure. Then it kept selling the green transition.

Originally published in Le Journal de Montréal, Thursday 9 April 2026.

Part 1 of this series established that roughly 95 to 97 % of the gas flowing through Énergir’s Quebec network is shale gas imported from the United States, and that Énergir missed its renewable gas delivery targets by about 73 %. What it had not yet addressed is the fossil gas business Énergir operated on the other side of the border. Here is what the public record reveals.

  1. Énergir held 38.3 % of the Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS). This is a 475 kilometre pipeline regulated by the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, carrying fossil natural gas from the Canadian Mainline to markets in northern New England.

  2. PNGTS is a cross-border fossil gas infrastructure. Énergir was not a passive recipient of shale gas. It was a co-owner of the pipeline that carried it, the same kind of extraction infrastructure that Quebec law prohibits on its own territory.

  3. In March 2024, TC Energy and Énergir announced the sale of PNGTS. Gross sale price: 1.14 billion US dollars, including the assumption of 250 million US dollars in senior notes. Buyers: funds managed by BlackRock Infrastructure and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners.

  4. The transaction closed in August 2024. With a 38.3 % stake, the estimated proceeds for Énergir came to roughly 436 million US dollars.

The PNGTS asset and the competing renewable record

  PNGTS asset (fossil) Renewable delivery record
Énergir stake 38.3 % Not applicable
Infrastructure 475 km pipeline, cross-border fossil gas Target: 2 % of network
Result / proceeds Sold August 2024, about 436 M US$ Delivered: 0.6 %, gap of 70 % below target (2023)
Regulatory authority FERC (United States) Régie de l’énergie (Quebec)

  1. Énergir held this stake during the same years it was missing its targets. Throughout this period, Énergir was at once Quebec’s sole gas distributor, the regulated entity required to green its network, and the contractual partner of the RNG agricultural producers that Quebec was subsidizing with public funds.

  2. The renewable gas targets were not met. The regulatory obligations called for 1 % by 2020, 2 % by 2023, and 5 % by 2025, but none was honoured. The network remained 95 to 97 % fossil while Énergir was realizing the maximum value of its holdings in fossil gas pipelines.

  3. The PSPGNR program was financing precisely the solution to this gap. Quebec agricultural producers were subsidized to inject biomethane into Énergir’s network, reducing the dependence on fossil gas that PNGTS helped sustain.

  4. The gap between the declared commitment and the measured result is a matter of public record. So is the profit drawn from fossil infrastructure. Questions about the management of the PSPGNR program are now before the Quebec courts.

Paul Sauvé, farmer GNR Shefford, GNRShefford.ca

This is Part 2 of the Green Ledger, an ongoing series of investigations concerning Énergir, Quebec’s renewable natural gas program, and the public funds that underpin them. Further revelations are to come. Principal sources: Régie de l’énergie du Québec, file R-4320-2025; TC Energy and Énergir press release of March 2024 and the August 2024 transaction close; PSPGNR program documents; Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. All data are drawn from publicly accessible sources. This content was produced by GNR Shefford.