Biofuel won’t be the divisive issue in the Canadian election that it has become in the U.S. campaign. In fact, it may not be much of an issue at all, says one industry leader.
South of the border, the two main presidential candidates are at odds on the file. Republican nominee John McCain and his party want to repeal the federal renewable fuel standard while Democratic nominee Barack Obama wants to maintain the national ethanol and biodiesel mandates.
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“The good news is, I don’t see what is happening in the U.S., in terms of biofuels being a wedge issue, being an issue here in Canada,” said Gordon Quaiattini, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuel Association.
He is confident Canada’s main political parties will continue to support the development of a biofuel sector in Canada, despite some waffling earlier this year when the Bloc Québécois and the NDP voted against Bill C-33, legislation designed to implement a national renewable fuel standard.
Quaiattini said the two parties were “playing politics” with the bill because they knew it would pass with the support of the Liberals and the Conservatives, two longtime advocates of the biofuel sector.
Their objection to the bill was in response to the food versus fuel debate that reached an apex around the time of the vote.
At the time, oil prices were around $135 per barrel and the Canadian Renewable Fuel Association tried to convince politicians that was the real culprit behind rising food costs.
Today, oil prices are approaching $100 per barrel, commodity prices are falling and food costs should follow suit.
“Big surprise, it was all being driven by oil. It was not being driven by biofuels policy,” said Quaiattini.
He doesn’t expect the food security issue will erode support for biofuel now that the price pressure has been relieved.
The association isn’t looking for much detail in the election platforms of the major political parties because much of the groundwork has already been laid with the passing of the biofuel legislation and the $1.5 billion EcoEnergy for Biofuels Initiative.
“We don’t have a specific ask as part of this campaign cycle,” said Quaiattini.
All he wants is a general pledge of support for the sector and he doesn’t anticipate that biofuel will be a burning issue this election.
Doug Hooper, chief executive officer of Canadian Bioenergy Corp., a firm building a 225 million litre canola biodiesel plant near Edmonton, thinks it will be a hot topic because he said there can’t be a discussion about climate change or carbon tax without touching on biofuel.
“You’re going to get into it,” he said.
Hooper applauded the outgoing government for its work on biofuel.
“Things have gone very well. The priority has been there and the attention has been there and the government has been pretty diligent in following through.”
He hopes the incoming group of MPs will follow Europe’s lead and adopt a 2020 vision for biofuel so that capital markets have a stable enough environment to make long-term investments.
“The whole demise of the capital markets in the last 16 to 18 months has really hampered the ability of the biofuels industry to build out,” said Hooper.
He would also like to see regulations established that will put the meat on the bones of Bill C-33 because while things are moving along well on the policy front, they tend to get bogged down at the implementation phase.
“There is more statement of intent than there are manifest measures to actually take action,” said Hooper.
