I just want to summarize our thoughts here. First, we feel that cogeneration offers significantly improved efficiency in energy use. It can reduce the demand for primary fuels, reduce emissions per unit of energy consumed, and make lower-cost power available.
There are also the benefits of more diverse sources of energy, with diversification in the locations of energy generation. But there are associated risks with respect to capital costs and price volatility when you're working in two markets--a heat market and an electricity market.
The opportunities vary significantly from coast to coast and are dependent upon a need for the waste heat that's located where you're going to be generating the electricity. The oil sands is a good example of where that waste heat will be needed. Finally, it complements strategies toward distributed generation.
Mr. Chairman, I hope that gives you an overview of cogeneration.
In speaking with the researcher in advance, he mentioned that there may be some interest among committee members in natural gas. The last slide shows the same scenarios but with Canadian gas production taken out, so you can see what our view is there.
This again is preliminary work. We're finalizing it and incorporating the consultations that are just concluding. We will be publishing in October. I would be more than happy to come back to meet with the committee at that time to present our final results.