Canadian ethanol deserves fair share of government funding, says industry lobby

by

Renewable Industries Canada is asking the Canadian government to give ethanol a fair shake after a “retooled” Clean Fuels Fund (CFF) made ethanol and e-methanol producers ineligible for funding.

In the September budget, the Liberals committed $776 million for a retooled CFF to drive production of renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, and renewable natural gas, but ethanol was not mentioned. RICanada (formerly the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association) says this CFF ethanol ban would jeopardize Canadian biofuel producers and farmers while potentially favouring U.S. imports and incentives.

On RealAg Radio this week, RICanada past president Andrea Kent joined host Shaun Haney to discuss the situation. She says that despite ethanol being Canada’s most produced biofuel, National Resources Canada (NRC) proposed making ethanol ineligible for the fund, claiming “Canada can meet ethanol demand with American imports — and by extension — American corn.”

Kent, currently industry and government affairs vice president for Greenfield Global, says the RICanada is asking NRC “to make all low carbon fuel pathways eligible. It shouldn’t preclude anything off the hop.” She adds that e-methanol (for marine shipping) is also ineligible “despite being crucial for the future, offering new biofuel production and agricultural opportunities.”

RICanada believes the ethanol and e-methanol exclusions will limit new business opportunities for Canadian farmers and biofuel producers and discourage investment in renewable fuel production and clean technology in Canada.

Kent notes that unlike Canada, the U.S. is supporting its ethanol industry. “The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act gives American ethanol producers a tax credit. Additionally, the U.S. is considering changes to its Sustainable Aviation Fuel Tax Credit that might exclude non-American ingredients, which could affect Canadian suppliers.” Check out the interview below.

Wake up with RealAgriculture

Subscribe to our daily newsletters to keep you up-to-date with our latest coverage every morning.

Wake up with RealAgriculture

Please register to read and comment.

Privacy Preference Center

Necessary

Necessary cookies help make a website usable by enabling basic functions like page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.

gdpr, __cfduid, PHPSESSID, wordpress_test_cookie, woocommerce_items_in_cart, woocommerce_cart_hash, wp_woocommerce_session, wordpress_logged_in, wordpress_sec, wp-settings, wp-settings-time, __cf_mob_redir, wordpress_cache, realag
__cfduid

Marketing

Measuring interactions with the ads on the domain.

__gads,fsk_ut_2317
IDE

Statistics

These are used to track user interaction and detect potential problems. These help us improve our services by providing analytical data on how users use this site.

_ga,_gid,_gat,_cb,_chartbeat2,_chartbeat4
_ga,_gid
metrics_token

Preferences

Preference cookies enable the website to remember information that changes the way the website behaves or looks, like your preferred language or the region that you are in.

chartdefaults, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_author_url
JSESSIONID, _os_session,anonymous_votes,csrf-param,csrf-token,user,user-id,user-platform,intercom-session,intercom-lou,intercom-session
personalization_id, tfw_exp

 

Register for a RealAgriculture account to manage your Shortcut menu instead of the default.

Register