Canada’s renewable fuel sector is turning its lobbying attention toward establishing a federal biodiesel mandate now that the ethanol mandate is in the rearview mirror.
The federal government has committed to implement a two percent biodiesel mandate no later than 2012.
“We want to see an April 2011 start date,” said Canadian Renewable Fuels Association president Gordon Quaiattini.
He said the industry has done everything asked of it, including providing proof that canola and soybean biodiesel blends will work in Canada’s cold climate.
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“That work has all been completed and that technical feasibility has been achieved,” Quaiattini said.
The federal government has finalized its biofuel regulations, and all that remains to be done is for the government to complete a regulatory impact statement, which is a cost/ benefit analysis of the impact a biodiesel regulation would have on the economy.
Quaiattini said an April 2011 deadline would give the petroleum industry sufficient time to make the required infrastructure changes to blend biodiesel into the country’s diesel supply.
However, the Canadian Petroleum Products Institute disagreed.
Ted Stoner, the institute’s western division vice-president, said petroleum producers and refineries operate in such a highly regulated environment that in some provinces it can take up to 14 months to obtain an environmental permit to build a storage tank.
“The renewable folks are probably assuming all the facilities and the capacity is in place and the petroleum industry says, ‘no, it’s not,’ ” Stoner said.
Petroleum companies won’t build blending infrastructure until the regulation is in place.
“Our industry has got burned a few times on the pretense that we think something is coming and it changes before it sees the light of day.”
The institute is asking Ottawa to introduce the biodiesel mandate in 2012 and allow at least two summers of compliance before it is strictly enforced. It claims it needs that time because biodiesel is a trickier renewable fuel to work with than ethanol.
“It’s going to be the petroleum industry that’s on the hook if we run into any problems with the consumer,” Stoner said.
Quaiattini said the biodiesel sector needs a mandated market to be earlier.
The federal government is expected to soon announce which biofuel companies will receive the remaining $473 million in the ecoEnergy for Biofuels program.
Quaiattini expects only one or two ethanol plants will receive funding, with most going to proposed biodiesel projects.
Those companies need to know there will be a market for the fuel they produce from the plants they are about to build, he said.
“The industry needs the predictability of that market access.”
Biofuel companies have been waiting a long time to find out which plants will get the nod.
Natural Resources Canada said in May it would announce the winning applicants by the end of that month.
