Alberta has joined its western Canadian counterparts by announcing a provincial biofuel mandate.
The proposed legislation will be introduced in the spring 2009 session of the legislature. It calls for five percent ethanol in gasoline and two percent renewable content in diesel by July 2010.
National biofuel and commodity associations welcomed the announcement.
“Alberta, with its agricultural and energy infrastructure and expertise, is uniquely positioned to build a vibrant homegrown ethanol and biodiesel industry,” said Gordon Quaiattini, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association.
“This is the start of a new renewable energy era in Alberta.”
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Alberta joins with three other provinces and the federal government that all have existing or pending mandates.
British Columbia has announced a standard that calls for five percent renewable content in gasoline and diesel by 2010.
Saskatchewan has had a 7.5 percent ethanol mandate in place since 2005 and is considering a biodiesel standard.
Manitoba implemented an 8.5 percent ethanol mandate in 2007 and five percent renewable content in diesel has been proposed.
Ontario has mandated five percent ethanol content in gasoline since 2007 and is proposing to expand the requirement to 10 percent in 2009.
Federal regulations are expected in 2009 that will pave the way for a national five percent ethanol mandate in 2010 and two percent inclusion of biodiesel in heating oil and diesel fuel by 2012.
The Canola Council of Canada praised Alberta for becoming the third jurisdiction to propose a biodiesel mandate.
“Crushing companies are ramping up production of canola oil, so what we need now is to get the biodiesel plants in place,” said council president JoAnne Buth.
The association anticipates the mandate will create an annual demand for 220,000 tonnes of canola, an important new customer base considering Alberta’s farmers grew 4.3 million tonnes of the crop this year, up 900,000 tonnes from 2007.
“We have some real momentum going,” said Buth.
Alberta has one ethanol plant and one biodiesel plant. Permolex International L.P. operates a 40 million litre ethanol facility in Red Deer and Western Biodiesel Inc. has a 20 million litre biodiesel plant near Calgary.
The proposed mandate will create a market for 300 million litres of ethanol and 125 million litres of biodiesel.
The renewable fuel standard will help Alberta meet about 10 percent of its 2010 climate change target by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by one million tonnes annually, the equivalent of taking 260,000 vehicles off the road each year.
In conjunction with the proposed standard, the province has extended the deadline for the Biorefining Commercialization and Market Development and Biorefining Infrastructure Development programs to 2011 from 2009.
The $5 million cap for those programs is also being increased. The maximum eligibility is now on a sliding scale from $500,000 for a $1 million project to $24 million for a $300 million project.
“As the amounts awarded will potentially be very high, the eligibility requirements to qualify will also be stricter,” said Alberta Energy spokesperson Kristin Stolarz in an e-mail response.
