Canada Biofuel Mandate Wins House Support
CANADA: May 2, 2008
OTTAWA - Canada's plan to ensure that gasoline contains 5 percent ethanol by
2010 won support in the House of Commons on Thursday despite increasing
concern about the impact of biofuels on world food supplies.
The legislation, which also calls for diesel to contain 2 percent renewable
fuels by 2012, passed a critical vote in the House, where the Conservative
government has a minority of seats, with the support of opposition members
from the Liberal and Bloc Quebecois parties.
The bill still must go through a final vote in the House but that seems
assured in light of Thursday's vote. It would then have to go through the
Liberal-dominated Senate.
The mandate would create demand for an estimated 2 billion litres of ethanol
and 600 million litres of biodiesel.
The Conservative government has also provided biofuel producers with
subsidies of C$1.5 billion ($1.47 billion) or 20 Canadian cents per litre in
an effort to ensure the mandate is filled with biofuel made from Canadian
crops.
Canada has 16 ethanol plants using corn and wheat built or under
construction, according to industry data, with a total capacity of 1.6
billion litres.
There are currently three biodiesel plants with a combined capacity of 97
million litres, mainly using animal fats. A plant that would produce 225
million litres of biodiesel from canola oil is under construction in
Alberta.
($1=$1.02 Canadian)
(Reporting by Randall Palmer and Roberta Rampton; editing by Renato Andrade)
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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