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Canada sets 5% biofuels target by 2010 Federal, provincial governments to ‘move forward,’ closing gap on other countries that mandate ethanol, renewable fuels in gasoline Gary Park For Petroleum News
Under fire from critics at home and overseas, the Canadian government has taken its first major step towards a “made-in-Canada” solution to greenhouse gas emissions by reaching an agreement with the 10 provinces to push ethanol content in gasoline to 5 percent by 2010 from today’s 0.5 percent.
The details will be negotiated over the summer and should be unveiled in November.
That would put Canada on roughly the same level as the United States, which is targeting an increase from 1 percent to 4 percent by 2012 and the European Union, which hopes to raise its level from 1 percent to 5.75 percent by 2010.
Following a meeting of federal and provincial environment, agriculture and energy ministers in Regina, Saskatchewan, on May 23 federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose said there is a “will to move forward” by the governments.
She said Canada needs to take up the challenge to close the gap on other countries that are increasing their use of bio-fuels by competing “on the world stage,” both economically and environmentally.
Objective is 5% Ambrose said the objective is a 5 percent national average content for renewable fuels (predominantly ethanol) in gasoline and diesel by 2010 as part of a larger strategy to reduce greenhouse gases.
Currently, Canada has a grab-bag of standards — Saskatchewan mandates a blend of ethanol in all fuel; Manitoba requires that 85 percent of that gasoline sold in its jurisdiction be blended with 10 percent ethanol; Ontario is committed to 5 percent ethanol in all gasoline by 2007.
But Canada, despite its access to the vast grain producing regions of the Prairies, lags far behind the United States in the production of ethanol — 300 million liters a year vs. 15 billion liters south of the 49th parallel.
Most of Canada’s ethanol is made from corn imported from the United States; Saskatchewan joined the agreement in return for assurances that U.S. corn will be replaced by wheat, corn and straw from Western Canada.
Plants now under construction and in the development stages will double the number of major ethanol plants to 10 over the next few years.
Husky Energy front-runner A front-runner is Husky Energy, which will complete a 130 million-liter plant in Saskatchewan in the third quarter and expects a second facility, also at 130 million liters, to open in Manitoba in the second half of 2007.
Commercial Alcohols has two plants in Ontario producing a combined 145 million liters and is working on two more plants (one in Ontario and one in Quebec) totaling 530 million liters.
The Canadian Renewable Fuels Association predicts ethanol output will grow four-fold in the next five years.
The initiative in reducing greenhouse gas emissions comes amid rising anger among some provinces and environmentalists who accuse the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper of abandoning its legal commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
Former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore took dead aim at Canada during the Cannes Film Festival in France, accusing the government of being a slave to the oil sands.
He said the Harper government is “in thrall to the tar sands interests and other polluting interests,” undermining Canada’s stature as a moral leader.
“What Canada does matters and I know enough about Canada to know the Canadian people take their obligations as citizens of the world more seriously than the people of any other nation on the face of this Earth.” he said, doubting that Canadians would turn their backs on their Kyoto commitments.
Harper government wants made-in-Canada alternative But the newly elected Harper administration has argued for a made-in-Canada alternative to Kyoto, describing the treaty’s emissions targets as unrealistic given that Ambrose notes emissions are now 35 percent above the 1990 levels Canada is committed to lower by 6 percent during the 2008-2012 period.
Domestic and international criticism of the government’s wavering on Kyoto has reached a crescendo this month after a document was leaked indicating Ottawa wants Kyoto phased out in favor of a separate, voluntary pact.
The document said Canada would not support “more stringent targets’ when Kyoto completes its first stage in 2012 and suggested Canada was ready to pull out of the treaty unless all major polluters were included.
Currently, 163 countries are Kyoto signatories, but only 34 are legally bound to achieve the emissions targets.
“Canada does not support a continuation of the status quo beyond 2012 and has no preconceived view on how a new commitment period might be structured,” the document said.
That coincides with further signs that Canada is leaning towards joining the U.S., China, India, Japan, South Korea and Australia in the Asia-Pacific Partnership (referred to as AP6) in developing technology to tackle greenhouse gas emissions.
Harper, after meetings with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, said the AP6 approach is “very much the path our government is looking at.”
Howard openly scorned Kyoto as a “very doctrinaire” approach by governments certain there is no other path.
“We don’t hold that view and certainly, from what I’ve heard (from Harper) nor does the Canadian government,” he said.
Howard said membership by the U.S., China and India — the world’s three largest emitters — in AP6 represents a serious attempt to address emissions problems.
But Ambrose is adamant that if an international consensus emerges Canada is prepared to take on new commitments.
To that end, she said it is “absolutely not true” that Canada will withdraw from Kyoto unless the U.S. is involved.
Gary Cook, a spokesman for the U.S. Climate Change Network, demanded that the Harper government “come clean with Canadians and the international community: Were Canadian diplomats given instructions (before the latest round of Kyoto negotiations in Germany) to prevent other countries from reaching agreement under the Kyoto Protocol?”
John McCallum, a Liberal Member of Parliament, said it is “humiliating for Canada that this government has put us on the wrong side of history,” telling Ambrose that if she “had any guts as an environment minister, she should resign.”
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