A biofuel strategy recently announced by the Saskatchewan Party calls on the federal government to mandate a 10 percent ethanol blend in gasoline by 2010.
That’s double the five percent blend the Conservatives have promised.
The strategy also calls for a five-percent biodiesel blend mandate.
Opposition leader Brad Wall said problems in the agriculture sector need to be addressed through a new generation of farm initiatives. The biofuel industry is one of those and Saskatchewan should lead in its development, he said.
But deputy premier Clay Serby said the opposition plan isn’t much different from what the province is already doing. Serby was scheduled to travel to Ottawa this month with producers to meet with agriculture minister Chuck Strahl and lobby for the biofuel industry.
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Serby said Saskatchewan is already leading the way in promoting biofuels because it was the first province to mandate ethanol use.
That mandate is now one percent. The number was supposed to rise to 7.5 percent on May 1 but that was delayed until the fall because not enough ethanol is produced in the province.
The Husky plant at Lloydminster is under construction, and will add 130 million litres annually to the approximately 37 million litres now produced now at Lanigan and Weyburn.
“We expect to have … this year the full commitment of ethanol required for this province,” Serby told the legislature.
He chastised Wall and the opposition for not paying attention to what the government is already doing.
But Wall said his plan will go further because it offers tax incentives, interest-free bridge financing to municipalities that develop infrastructure to assist the biofuels industry, and research funding for both universities in the province.
“Saskatchewan is the perfect place for a biofuel industry,” Wall said.
Serby also criticized the opposition’s plan for not doing more to ensure producer benefits. The government plan calls for producer ownership within the industry.
