Four years after first announcing a plan to set minimum requirements for ethanol content in gasoline, the Conservative government says it is ready to move.Regulations to require an “average” of five percent renewable fuel in gasoline sold in Canada will take effect Dec. 15, environment minister Jim Prentice announced Sept. 1.Government officials were not immediately available to explain how the averaging system will apply as fuel companies move to comply.A two percent requirement for renewable fuel content in diesel and heating oil is supposed to take effect next year although the government still is hedging its bets.Approving final diesel content regulations will be “subject to successful demonstration of technical feasibility under a range of Canadian conditions,” says a statement on the Environment Canada website.In a statement issued by the government, agriculture minister Gerry Ritz said the imposed renewable fuel mandate is good news for farmers who produce the ethanol feedstock. “This is a vital step in generating new market opportunities for our farmers and maximizing Canada’s high quality resources to produce food and fuel for the world.”The government says the renewable fuel mandate with reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to four million tonnes by 2012, the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road.The biofuel content requirements are part of a broader Conservative biofuel policy that includes $1.5 billion in subsidies to producers of biofuel.Environmental critics of biofuel subsidies, including the Green Party, argue that the program is farm policy disguised as environmental policy. They question whether greenhouse gas emissions during the production, harvesting, processing and transportation of the biofuel product actually cancels any benefit from replacing five percent of the gasoline content.
Ethanol content requirements to take effect Dec. 15
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