SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – The bloom may be off the biodiesel rose, but a senior American biofuel promoter says the canola industry must keep working on it.
The lacklustre support for biofuel will soon become more fervent.
“You’re postured for very strong growth,” said Andy Karsner, former U.S. assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, in a speech to the Canola Council of Canada’s convention in San Francisco, Calf., last week.
“You need to get ready.”
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From being touted as a strong new demand source and value-added element of the canola industry just two or three years ago, biodiesel production from canola has stalled.
Few canola biodiesel plants exist and canola recently was excluded in U.S. renewable fuels standards approvals.
That is a potential problem for the canola industry’s goal of reaching 15 million tonnes of production per year by 2015, because the council’s demand projection to use up that extra canola includes two million tonnes of canola for domestic biodiesel production and 500,000 tonnes for export sales to biodiesel producers.
Support for biofuel production in the United States has weakened under the administration of president Barack Obama and the Canadian government has not been aggressive in its support.
But Karsner said he thinks the mood will shift dramatically if energy independence and security once more gain attention.
“Energy independence will return,” he said, noting that the current tolerance for importing oil from states hostile to the U.S. and rejecting biofuel from friendly countries could switch due to geopolitical tensions.
In that case, the canola industry must have sufficient research behind its claims of being a positive, environmentally friendly source of biodiesel when governments once more begin to care about biofuels.
The views coincided with those of Alberta farmer Ted Scriber and biodiesel promoter Ian Thomson, who were in the audience.
“Coming to the plate at the right time is critical,” said Scriber.
“We have to be able to present our product and have it accepted.”
Thomson said weak support in Canada and now the U.S. means canola biodiesel will develop more slowly than hoped.
“We’ll have to do it in a stepped approach, so we’re positioned to react when we get the signals we need.”
The current short-term guarantees of tax and inclusion support aren’t enough for large numbers of big projects.
“When you think of building any industry, you can’t do it on one- and two-year time horizons,” said Thomson. “It sends mixed messages to the industry and it’s not a surprise that the industry is only slowly developing.”
