Today’s New York Times takes a look at the ethanol woes in the United States. For a more technical review of the issue, see “Ethanol: President Obama and the EPA Face A Tough Decision Soon.”

U.S. Unlikely to Use the Ethanol Congress Ordered

By MATTHEW L. WALD

WASHINGTON — Two years ago, Congress ordered the nation’s gasoline refiners to do something that is turning out to be mathematically impossible.

To please the farm lobby and to help wean the nation off oil, Congress mandated that refiners blend a rising volume of ethanol and other biofuels into gasoline. They are supposed to use at least 15 billion gallons of biofuels by 2012, up from less than seven billion gallons in 2007.

But nobody at the time counted on fuel demand falling in the United States, which is what has happened during the recession. And that decline could well continue, as cars become more efficient under other recent government mandates.

At the maximum allowable blend, in which gasoline at the pump contains 10 percent ethanol, updated projections suggest that the country is unlikely to be able to use all the ethanol that Congress has ordered up. So something has to give.

“The market is full,” said Jeff Broin, chief executive of Poet, a company in Sioux Falls, S.D., that produces ethanol.

In theory, the Environmental Protection Agency has the power to solve this problem by tweaking the mandates imposed by Congress, and it may act as early as next week.

Each potential solution would anger one interest group or another, so the agency has been subjected to fierce lobbying, including from members of Congress lining up behind various factions. One possibility is to raise the maximum proportion of ethanol in gasoline to 15 or 20 percent.

But that idea is opposed by some carmakers and pollution experts. They contend that high ethanol blends can cause damage to cars, including making catalytic converters run hotter.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers says it believes this could cause the converters, components that help control pollution, to fail at around 50,000 miles. They are supposed to last for 120,000 to 150,000 miles. “We are sensitive to the issues facing the ethanol industry, but the government must make decisions based on sound science,” said Dave McCurdy, president and chief executive of the alliance, in a letter to the E.P.A.

Another possibility is that the agency could waive the mandates requiring use of a large volume of biofuels. But that would anger farmers, who sell a great deal of corn to ethanol factories, and the members of Congress who represent them. It might also undermine the efforts of companies that are investing millions in factories to make ethanol from waste materials, like corncobs, straw and garbage.

“Ethanol is the only viable, competitive alternative to foreign oil,” said Tom Buis, chief executive of Growth Energy, the ethanol trade group that filed the petition with the E.P.A. to increase the blending percentage. “If we’re going to become less dependent on foreign oil, we’ve got to move forward.”

A third possibility is that the E.P.A. could announce that it is waiting for more data on how cars perform at higher blends, but that would merely put off the hard decision.

When Congress wrote the rules, in 2007, gasoline consumption had been growing for years, and it looked as if the nation would be able to use considerably more ethanol in the future. Gasoline consumption hit a peak of 3.4 billion barrels that year.

But gasoline demand fell in 2008, after soaring gas prices early in the year were followed by the economic crisis. Consumption was slightly less than 3.3 billion barrels last year, and it could end 2009 at about the same level.

With consumers buying more fuel-efficient cars these days, and carmakers rushing to bring even more of those to market, gasoline demand may not recover much in coming years, even as ethanol production soars.

As of yet, not all gasoline is blended with 10 percent ethanol, but that saturation point is rapidly approaching. Under the present rules, the nation could hit the upper limit of its ability to consume ethanol in 2011.

Mr. Buis and others argue that Congress or the E.P.A. must do something if the country is to move to a new generation of biofuels that do not compete with food crops. The possibilities include ethanol made from wood chips, waste paper or agricultural waste like straw and corncobs.

Congress has also passed mandates for the blending of this type of fuel, so that the nation’s total consumption of all renewable fuels, in vehicles and other equipment, is supposed to reach 36 billion gallons in 2022.

Perhaps the easiest way for the country to absorb all the excess ethanol would be to make wider use of an ethanol blend called E85, which contains 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Most cars on the road cannot use it, but in recent years, millions of “flex-fuel” cars have been sold, especially by General Motors. (Any car with a yellow gasoline cap can use E85.)

The problem is that at current prices, E85 does not make economic sense for drivers, and most of them use regular gasoline in their flex-fuel cars. That means gasoline stations have little incentive to install pumps for E85. The fuel can be found in the Corn Belt but is not readily available elsewhere in the country.

Gasoline was selling on average Thursday for $2.63 a gallon, while E85 was selling for $2.23 a gallon. That might make E85 sound like a bargain, but cars go fewer miles on a gallon of ethanol than of gasoline. Adjusted for that factor, E85 on Thursday was effectively 31 cents a gallon more expensive than gasoline.

A return of $4 gasoline might change things, by making E85 a relative bargain and spurring wider use. So would an unexpected spurt in total fuel demand. Otherwise, it is not at all clear how the nation’s coming surplus of ethanol can be absorbed.

Gregory M. Scott, executive vice president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, drives a flex-fuel car in the Washington area, but said he had never put E85 in it.

He said the amount of renewable fuel that Congress had mandated refiners to use, and the amount that can be blended for conventional automobiles, were on a collision course.

“At some point,” he said, “those two lines cross.”

Wie die Futurezone berichtet, muss die ÖH-Wahl “wegen fehlerhafter elektronischer Stimmzettel voraussichtlich wiederholt” werden, da die Bundeswahlkommission die Wahl an der Uni Wien aufgehoben hat. Die Uni Salzburg ist auch eventuell betroffen.

Bei der Wahlkommission langten insgesamt 33 Einsprüche gegen die letzte ÖH-Wahl im Frühling 2009 ein (derStandard.at):

Grund für die Wahlaufhebung soll indirekt das bei der ÖH-Wahl 2009 erstmals mögliche E-Voting sein. Am elektronischen Stimmzettel war der Listenname der Jungen Europäischen Studenteninitiative (JES) fehlerhaft, der Liste fehlte das “Europäische”. Zudem fehlten auf dem Internet-Stimmzettel [..] bei allen Fraktionen die Kurzbezeichnungen. [..]

Angefochten haben die Wahl die Grünen Alternativen StudentInnen (GRAS). An allen Universitäten, an denen sie kandidiert haben wurde das Ergebnis aufgrund des E-Voting-Verfahrens und möglicher Bedenken angefochten [..]. Zwei Verfassungsgerichtshofklagen aus dem Umfeld des Ring Freiheitlicher Studenten (RFS) wurden aus formalen Gründen abgelehnt.

Nachtrag: heise.de berichtet ebenfalls.

Today’s Wall Street Journal VentureWire says, “Anyone who’s been putting their green into the green stuff that grows in ponds — i.e., algae — may be set to hit the jackpot. Dow Jones Newswires reports that Capitol Hill is currently considering legislation which would boost the industry by expanding the definition of biofuels under the Renewable Fuels Standard to include algae-based fuels, and may grant companies algal biofuel tax credits as well.”

Enthusiasm for cellulosic ethanol has overshadowed the need for a close scrutiny of the product, and output for the biofuel has fallen short of targets, writes Dave Juday in the conservative magazine Weekly Standard. Then-President George W. Bush said a “pile of wood chips” would eventually power cars, but in reality, it can take as much as 90 years of tree growth to produce one 15-minute full-up of the renewable fuel, Juday adds. “It is time to wipe the slate clean, eliminate the cellulosic fuel mandate, and re-think U.S. biofuels policy,” he recommends

Ethanol Producer’s Kris Bevill reports that “Purdue University has been awarded a $900,000 U.S. Department of Energy grant to conduct analysis of the global impacts of second-generation biofuels. According to Tom Hertel, ag economics professor at Purdue University and project co-investigator, the team’s research will be a continuation of previous work conducted policy alternatives and global land use impacts of first-generation biofuels.” Purdue’s Hertel was the author of the controversial land use analysis that the California’s Air Resources Board used in the Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

According to a post by Cindy Zimmerman in DomesticFuels.com, Sorghum use in ethanol on the rise and corn ethanol better watch out. “According to a survey by the United Sorghum Checkoff Program (USCP), 29 percent of the grain sorghum grown in the United States this year will be used to produce ethanol – a total of nearly 137 million bushels.” USCP Board Chairman, Bill Greving says this is very exciting news for the sorghum industry. “This study shows what we have always known, that sorghum ethanol yields are comparable to corn. In the past year, the price differential has greatly benefited the bottom line of ethanol plants using sorghum as a feedstock,” said Greving.

The “Washington Insider” section of DTN (link requires subscription) reported yesterday that, “The Environmental Protection Agency continues to work against a Dec. 1 deadline for making a decision about whether to increase the maximum ethanol blend rate for non-flex-fuel vehicles from the current 10 percent level to as much as 15 percent, as requested by Growth Energy. EPA over the past few months has indicated that it would like additional time for studies to be completed regarding this issue, notably how a blend increase would affect cars with over 120,000 miles on their odometers.

According to the report, “some sources report that EPA is considering allowing up to a 15 percent maximum blend beginning with 2001 model cars. If so, that would equate to around 80 percent of all cars on the road today. It also is possible EPA could make its decision contingent on final results from ongoing studies due to be released next spring into early summer, meaning the agency would miss next week’s deadline. [While] other sources are saying if EPA chooses to announce the blend level will remain at 10 percent, Growth Energy or someone else likely would resubmit the request for an increase, thus starting the process all over. That, in turn, would allow enough time for some of the pending studies to be completed for EPA to use in its decision-making.”

One of the most vocal groups representing the corn ethanol industry is calling on California’s Air Resources Board (CARB) to reopen the  on the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) after what it calls “undisclosed documents” recently uncovered related to the rulemaking process. Here’s Growth Energy’s press release:

Growth Energy calls on ARB to allow public comment on undisclosed LCFS documents

Growth Energy, the coalition of U.S. ethanol supporters, called on the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to allow the public to comment on documents pertaining to their low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) rulemaking that were not disclosed and should influence the final rule. Through a public records request, Growth Energy uncovered numerous previously undisclosed documents and comments from ARB consultants that cast doubt on ARB conclusions and others that appeared to influence ARB’s assumptions.

Following the discovery, Growth Energy issued a letter to ARB, calling on them to reopen the public comment period and allow comment on all documents received by ARB in connection with the LCFS as mandated by the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). These include documents commenting on detailed environmental analyses of the LCFS developed by other corn ethanol stakeholders, including the Renewable Fuels Association and the New Fuels Alliance. The letter to ARB also included eight questions to which Growth Energy is seeking answers.

“The public records request confirmed what we suspected: that significant portions of the ARB staff’s environmental and economic analyses appeared to be based on assumptions, rather than technical analyses available to the public,” said Tom Buis, CEO of Growth Energy. “Even more disturbing are the omitted comments from ARB consultants that contradict the conclusions reached by ARB staff regarding the carbon intensity of ethanol.”

In the letter, Growth Energy notes that Dr. Thomas Hertel, professor at Purdue University and the senior member of ARB’s advisory team for GTAP, called ARB’s use of the GTAP results in the regulation “rather arbitrary,” and “much less defensible” than an alternative he supported

Also omitted from the public rulemaking file was a PowerPoint presentation from Dr. Hertel to ARB stating that the GTAP model “is better suited to generating insights and ranges of results than to generating specific numbers,” yet ARB used GTAP to generate a specific ILUC number for ethanol.

“We are only one-third of the way through our public records request and have discovered scores of comments and documents not disclosed to the public that prejudiced the final LCFS rule,” Buis said. “Selective disclosure is not an option in something this important. To not allow public review and comment on these would be a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act and a perversion of the democratic process.”

Growth Energy, a new corn ethanol lobby group, put our a press release today calling on Congress to ease the installation of pumps that dispense mid- and high-level ethanol blends. According to a letter written to the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees, the organization says the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit, which should allow fuel vendors to recapture up to $50,000, or 50 percent, of the total cost of installing alternative fuel dispensing systems is being undermined by an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) interpretation that retailers are only allowed to take credit for a portion of the new pump – instead of the entire pump.

If the biofuels sector continues its expansion to meet the renewable fuels mandate, big oil companies and midstream businesses may have to change their practices, according to a report from Standard & Poor’s. The development of advanced biofuels could change conventional refinery requirements and distribution programs, and rack and terminal facilities may need more tanks and mixing equipment to allow for new blends, S&P analyst Mark Habib said. Different specifications for pipelines may also need to be developed or current ones retooled to serve regions where the alternative fuels would be produced, he added.

According Reuters, a shaky U.S. dollar and limited supplies of Brazil’s cane-based ethanol could allow U.S. producers of corn ethanol to enter the European or Asian markets. Historically high sugar prices, demand from the transportation sector, as well as the 36% appreciation of the Brazilian currency against the dollar this year, are making Brazil’s ethanol prices “not viable for exports” in the coming months, an analyst said. But U.S. shipments could be limited because increased exports would boost corn usage, “which will in turn tighten up the balance sheet” of the crop, a Prudential Bache Commodities analyst said.

According to Inside EPA Weekly Report (subscription required), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is having a hard time “with resolving a host of factors affecting its new renewable fuels standard (RFS) make it unlikely that the agency will meet an early 2010 goal for the RFS to take effect.” Speaking at Infocast’s Cellulosic Ethanol SUmmit, EPA’s Paul Argyropoulos said that “the agency recognizes that it faces a tight deadline to finalize the rule in time to implement it in 2010 but would not specify when the RFS would be finalized or when the agency plans to implement it. ‘I can’t give you much more than [to] say that we are working incredibly hard to get this rule done as quickly as possible,’” he is quoted as saying. Meanwhile, for a look at other recent issues regarding biofuels see DTN Ag Policy’s Chris Clayton article, “Biofuel Policies on the Table in December.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS) issued a report titled, “Ethanol and a Changing Agricultural Landscape. An ERS summary of the report stated in part that, “The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 established specific targets for the production of biofuel in the United States. Until advanced technologies become commercially viable, meeting these targets will increase demand for traditional agricultural commodities used to produce ethanol, resulting in land-use, production, and price changes throughout the farm sector. This report summarizes the estimated effects of meeting the EISA targets for 2015 on regional agricultural production and the environment. Meeting EISA targets for ethanol production is estimated to expand U.S. cropped acreage by nearly 5 million acres by 2015, an increase of 1.6 percent over what would otherwise be expected.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should permit 11% or 12% ethanol in gasoline if it cannot rule on an industry proposal to increase the blend wall to 15% by Dec. 1, said Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). The comments by Sen. Grassley, who is perhaps the biggests supported of corn ethanol in the Congress, come amid reports that the EPA will extend the review period for E15 to conduct more tests, he added. Iowa accounts for roughly 26% of U.S. ethanol production, making it the country’s biggest manufacturer of the fuel, the state’s Renewable Fuels Association said.

According to a report in E&E today (subscription required), automakers are questioning the long-term durability issues. “We expect to have the answers in the next 12 months or so. And at that point, we would be comfortable,” Candace Wheeler of General Motors said yesterday at the InfoCast Cellulosic Biofuels Summit in Washington, D.C.  The executive at GM (which sought Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection earlier this year!) said that given questions of “durability,” suggested EPA should consider delaying or rejecting E15 until they can be certain that all 240 million vehicles in the United States would run fine with E15.

According to an Associated Press report, Poet, the nation’s top ethanol producer, says it is has reduced its cellulosic ethanol production cost during the past year from $4.13 per gallon to $2.35 per gallon. The current wholesale price of corn ethanol is about $2.00 per gallon. It is not clear whether Poet is including the various subsidies it already receives for cellulosic ethanol, including a $1.01 per gallon tax credit on cellulosic ethanol.  Also, the Company plans to produce only 25 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol each year at its plant in Iowa, but the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates the use of 100 million gallons in 2010.

As the Senate works on climate-change legislation, lawmakers may let the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) retain its power to regulate greenhouse gases in order to win over critics who are concerned over the agency’s role in the measure, writes Matthew Madia in the OMB Watch blog. The House version of the bill modified the EPA’s authority under the Clean Air Act to secure the votes of moderate lawmakers and representatives of the energy sector, and senators could do the same thing in their proposal, Madia added.

According to Inside Cal/EPA, “Midwest state officials crafting a regional low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS) are likely to propose a less stringent indirect land-use greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions penalty for corn-based ethanol than the air board has adopted and Northeast officials are pursuing, setting up a potential clash among the regions and possibly complicating any efforts to develop a national policy.”

The effort is led by the Midwest Governors Association (MGA) would favor corn ethanol, which has been heavily criticized in California’s LCFS done under the auspices of that state’s Air Resources Board (ARB). This would be the third regional LCFS established in the country, in addition to the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In general, the various LCFS proposals seek a 10% reduction in the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by 2020, but the Midwest LCFS would likely not include indirect land use change emissions.

Science Magazine’s website conducted an Insider Conversation e-mail conversation with Tim Searchinger and John Sheehan  biofuels at the University of Minnesota, on the topic: Can Biofuels Be Carbon Friendly.

It’s well worth a read, particularly Mr. Sheehan’s closing words: “I believe we can begin to focus on real solutions to both our energy security and climate change problems and that these solutions will involve, at least to some extent, biofuels. There are some transportation needs that simply must have a low-carbon liquid fuel alternative. Tim [Searchinger] has pointed out that there are probably “safer” options for biofuels that minimize the risk of indirect land use. We should pursue those. But I think it would be a mistake if we narrowed the field to just [making fuel out of agricultural] residues and wastes a priori. Finally, I think we need to broaden the discussion of biofuels beyond the question of carbon emissions. After all, carbon emissions are just one lens through which to look at our global land-use problems. Biofuels have done us all a big favor by turning a spotlight on what my colleague Jon Foley refers to as the ‘other inconvenient truth‘: land use.”

After months of wrangling over competing bids, Florida’s Broward County decided to restart the process to select an investor to upgraded its idled 960,000-barrel Port Everglades bulk liquid storage facility. Those who invested time and money up to now are disappointed but it appears that not all would be be lost if the county can rebid the project quickly. Florida is using 10% ethanol in its gasoline, the third largest transportation market in the country

According to an earlier report from Platts, the county has been offering to lease the Port Everglades tank farm for 20 years. The committee was considering bids from Magellan Midstream Partners and Brazilian ethanol group Cepemar World Renewable Fuels. Each company was seeking a 30-year lease. In April, the committee selected Cepemar, but in early October reversed its decision and selected Magellan. On October 13, the committee called for more information from both companies. On November 3, the committee scratched the whole bidding process and sent the matter back to the county’s procurement department.

Delays in the project has cost the seaport approximately $1.2 a year in lost lease payments alone. The venture is expected to take at least a year to build and will cost an estimated $35 million. The tanks were built during World War II to store molasses.

In an interview with Reuters’ Tom Doggett, the heaf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said that the agency may not meet a December 1 deadline to decide whether to approve an industry request to boost the amount of ethanol that can be blended into gasoline.

Earlier this year, corn ethanol producers asked EPA to allow gasoline to contain up to 15 percent ethanol by volume, known as E15, from current 10% limit. Today, EPA’s Administrator Lisa Jackson said the agency may have to work past the December 1 deadline because it is still reviewing test results on how the higher blend rate would affect engines “across the board” — including cars, trucks, snowmobiles, motor boats and lawnmowers. “One of the issues is … lots of concern about how E15 plays over a range of engines,” Jackson said in a interview at EPA headquarters. “So having the data to be able to answer those questions once and for all is going to be, I think, key to making a decision that is rigorous and holds up.”

In a potential blow to those who seek to protect forests in less-developed countries, a new study suggests that carbon dioxide emissions caused by tropical forest destruction have been significantly overestimated. Research published in the journal Nature Geoscience says the figure the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change presented in 2007 is an overestimate. The panel said that 20 percent of the carbon dioxide produced by human activity was caused by loss of forests in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia. Van der Werf puts the number closer to 12 percent and says the panel figures are based on an exaggerated rate of tropical deforestation and outdated information.

BIO will host three webinars from the Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy in Honolulu, featuring companies, researchers, and policy makers at the forefront of efforts to commercialize algae applications, cellulosic biofuels, and renewable chemicals.

1.International Developments in Algae Commercialization
Valerie Reed, U.S. Department of Energy;
Patrick McGinn, Institute of Marine Biosciences, National Research Council, Canada;
Ravi Shrivastava, Defence Research Development Organization, India.
Monday Nov. 9, 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST
(12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. PST
10:00 a.m to 11:30 a.m HST)

2.Meeting the Challenges of Commercializing Cellulosic Ethanol
William Baum, Verenium Corporation, http://www.verenium.com;
Kevin Gray, Qteros, http://www.qteros.com;
James Imbler, ZeaChem, Inc., http://www.zeachem.com.
Tuesday Nov. 10, 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. EST
(11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. PST
9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. HST)

3.Commercialization of Renewable Chemicals
Christophe Schilling, Genomatica, http://www.genomatica.com;
Steven J. Gatto, Myriant Technologies, LLC, http://www.myriant.com;
Bhima Vijayendran, Battelle Memorial Institute, http://www.battelle.org.
Wednesday Nov. 11, 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST
(11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PST
9:00 a.m to 10:30 a.m HST)

RSVP: A password will be required to participate in each webinar. The webinars will be available at https://biotechnology.webex.com/biotechnology. To reserve space and receive password instructions, please contact Paul Winters, Communications Director, BIO at 202-962-9237 or pwinters@bio.org.
These sessions are presented live from the 2009 Pacific Rim Summit on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioenergy, being held Nov. 8-11, 2009 in Honolulu. The Pacific Rim Summit is the only global conference dedicated to building innovative collaborations in industrial biotechnology across the Pacific. http://www.bio.org/pacrim/.

The US will need to import large volumes of ethanol from Brazil to meet advanced biofuel targets set under the US Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), Karim Salamon, head of research and statistics at the French trading firm Sucres et Denrees, said at F.O. Licht’s World Ethanol 2009 conference in Paris. This week.

The RFS defines advanced biofuels as renewable fuel other than corn ethanol that achieves at aleast 40% reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions requirement.

Sugarcane ethanol would qualify as an advanced biofuel based on preliminary estimates by the Environmental Protection agency (EPA). And the Brazilian ethanol group (UNICA) claims sugarcane ethanol can reduce GHG emissions by 80% compared with gasoline even if including the controversial indirect land use change (ILUC).

Under the RFS, the US must blend 600m gal (2.27bn litres) of advanced biofuels in 2009. That target will jump to 950m gal next year and 5.5bn gal by 2015.

The US may have to rely heavily on ethanol from Brazil to meet those mandates, said Karim Salamon. The analyst said the question now is whether Brazil will be able to increase its ethanol production to meet an expected jump in global demand in the coming years.

Several low-emission technologies have the potential to transform the transportation sector within five years if policymakers and regulators can help clear hurdles to commercial markets, according to a new report. The report, released Tuesday by the consulting firm Accenture, identifies 12 technologies — including algae-based biofuels, next-generation internal combustion engines and electrification — that it considers most likely to quickly transform the fuels sector. But those technologies will need help, the report says.

Of interest, the report notes (see page 21) that “Synthetic biology: sugar cane-to-diesel [is] close to commercial viability. [...] Synthetic biology applied to the sugar-to-diesel pathway changes this situation. If the economics could come close to the sugar cane-to-ethanol economics, then there would be significant potential in diesel markets given the cost and availability of sugar cane (compared to the traditional biodiesel feedstocks such as palm, soy and rapeseed). The use of synthetic biology to convert sugars to diesel has advanced significantly in the past one to two years, and it is close to commercial viability. Two companies, Amyris and LS9, are planning to break ground on commercial plants in 2011, with production starting by 2013.

Canadian biofuel makers will ask for an expansion of the country’s biofuels mandates and production incentives, although industry officials have not agreed on proposed new targets, according to Gordon Quaiattini, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association. The country’s biofuel facilities rely on government subsidies, but expanding mandates “will create the right economic climate for these renewable fuels plants to be sustainable economically,” Quaiattini told Reuters.