The federal government says rules requiring that gasoline contain at least five percent renewable fuel, almost four years in the making, will take effect no later than September.
Environment minister Jim Prentice announced recently that the government will publish regulations in the Canada Gazette on how the rule will apply.
Canadians will have 60 days to comment.
“We are fulfilling the commitment we made in 2006 to regulate renewable fuel content in gasoline and have developed draft regulations following consultations with industry, provinces and stakeholders,” he said in a press release.
Prentice said when the biofuel content regulations and various provincial rules are in place, it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by four million tonnes annually – “about the equivalent of taking one million vehicles off the road.”
Agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said the announcement that the five-percent rule is just months away should encourage investment in biofuel plants.
“This regulation will provide the certainty needed for the renewable fuels industry to make investments that will create new jobs and provide new market opportunities for farmers,” he said in the news release.
At Grain Growers of Canada, executive director Richard Phillips said he was delighted.
The GGC has been pushing the government to move more quickly on the biofuel file, he said. Now, if the public comment period results in a need for more consultation on changes, they should be “fast tracked.”
Meanwhile, a recent farmer survey conducted for Farm Credit Canada suggests that farmers are souring on the promise the biofuel once presented.
The FCC survey of more than 1,100 farmers across the country showed that farmer assessment of the potential benefit of selling grain as feedstock to biofuel plants has sharply declined.
In Saskatchewan, 18 percent of farmers said in 2007 biofuel production was the greatest opportunity facing them. Late last year, it had fallen to eight percent.
In Alberta, faith in the potential of the industry for farmers fell to seven percent from 20 percent.
In Ontario, it fell to three percent from 14 percent.
