Aggressive promotion needed | Biofuel industry told to speak up and explain the environmental advantages over fossil fuels
The biofuel industry has to step up its game to convince Canadians that it is a vital part of the climate change solution, says a Vancouver environmental academic.
“We need biofuels big time and it can’t be marginalized anymore,” Mark Jaccard, a resource and environmental management professor at Simon Fraser University, told the annual Canadian Renewable Fuels Association meeting Dec. 4 in Ottawa.
“We need to make biofuels happen really fast.”
He said government support through mandatory requirements for biofuel content in fuel will continue to be necessary because fossil fuel, while more polluting, will always be cheaper.
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“Fossil fuels will beat biofuels every time,” he said in an interview after his speech.
“They’re plentiful, they’re high density energy, they will kill off renewables if you let them compete fairly and they will kill off the planet. So there’s the tradeoff. Do you want to pay a little bit more for moving around in a vehicle and supporting agriculture or do you want to pay less and destroy the planet?”
Some argue that oil reserves are declining and the “peak oil” tipping point of declining reserves has been passed or soon will be, but Jaccard said new oil reserves are becoming accessible and available resources will stretch for decades into the future.
Jaccard said the federal government’s climate change policies are a disaster, promoting oilsands and conventional development that is leading to global warming.
The government has supported biofuel production with a mandate requiring use of renewable fuels in gasoline and diesel, but it still is a small part of Canada’s energy strategy.
In Ottawa, the Conservatives have been targeting opposition New Democrats for proposing a carbon cap-and-trade system that government MPs say would be a $21 billion “tax on everything.”
Jaccard noted that the Conservatives also promised a cap-and-trade carbon system in the 2006 election campaign.
He told the convention that the only way to contain global warming is for governments to impose controls and costs on carbon emissions.
Ottawa must become tougher in dealing with carbon-emitting industries such as the Alberta oilsands and pollution-emitting vehicles, he added.
“We have to make carbon production costly or regulate it.”
He said the biofuel industry must be part of the solution with more aggressive self-promotion.
“Being nice has not worked,” he said. “It is time for you to speak up. Be vocal.”
Jaccard said the official international position of holding average temperature increases to 2 C is already lost.
The real temperature increase could be 4 to 6 C if governments do not get tougher about controlling emissions, he added.
“That would be a disaster for the planet.”
