Canadian production of biodiesel and ethanol lags
This isn’t surprising, but it’s worth pointing out a study from F.O. Licht, prepared for the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, that concludes Canada is well behind Brazil and the United States when it comes to biofuel production, and behind many European Union countries and other geographies when biofuels are measured as a percentage of gasoline consumption. The study takes a look at the different policy mechanisms in each country that support biofuels, and gives credit to some provinces in Canada — including Ontario — for setting mandates. The CRFA has obviously commissioned this report to put pressure on federal politicians to impose similar mandates on a national level, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The ruling Conservatives and the recently ousted Liberals have both supported a policy that’s similar to Ontario’s, so you’d think this would be a slam dunk. On a related note, Biox Corp. is getting close to opening its biodiesel production plant in Hamilton, Ont., which will put 60 million litres a year on tap.
Tyler Hamilton is senior energy reporter and columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the cleantech market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper. Tyler can be reached at tyler@cleanbreak.ca
April 2nd, 2006 at 6:21 pm
The Canadian Auto Workers Union is the one organization most responsible for the legalization of industrial hemp in Canada. They should simply follow through and advocate the use of industrial hemp for the production of ethanol fuel, rather than perpetuate the mistake of using Monsanto GMO corn, which we all know is wrecking havoc amongst Canadian farmers.