Canada not exactly swimming in available biofuels
Up in the land of a few acres of snow, citizens are eager to use biofuels but, in many cases, can't find them. A story on Canada.com gives us the details of a trend in the country of customers wondering where the biofuels are at. E85, for example, is available to the general public only at two stations in Ontario - not enough for the 600,000 E85-capable vehicles on the roads in Canada. UPI Energy opened one of those E85 pumps, and president Robert Sicard said that both drivers and vehicle salespeople aren't aware that vehicles with yellow gas caps can handle E85.
It will probably shock you to know that the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association and the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association is pushing the government to make biofuels more readily available. For his part, Sicard is helping dealers hang yellow tags in vehicles on the lot that identify the car as a flex-fuel one. Let's not forget that Canada currently exports ethanol to the U.S.
[Source: Canada.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steve 12:13PM (2/25/2008)
Wow, Canadians don't have ready access to biofuels at the pump? That's so different from Amer--oh wait, never mind.
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Snowdog 12:16PM (2/25/2008)
Why would you want to burn e85?
To support corporate lobbying/welfare/boondoggle or you just like getting 30% less mpg?
E85/Flex is a farce.
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psarhjinian 12:24PM (2/25/2008)
Considering that most commercially-available ethanol is complete greenwashing, this isn't a bad thing.
Ethanol (and it's porkbarrel CAFE exemption) only exists because a) it's a cash cow for big agribusiness and b) it's much easier to modify an existing gas engine to burn E85 than it would be to design and certify a North American diesel or hybrid.
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Wise Golden 1:37PM (2/25/2008)
Too bad. Canada has everything needed to become a bio-fuels powerhouse. In the US, we'll be luck if we ever get to the point where we can produce 20% of our fuel as bio-fuel. Canada, with it larger land area and excellent agriculture, and it's dramatically lower population, could easily reach 100% if it wanted to.
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Eric Lemieux 3:57PM (2/25/2008)
I've just sent a tip to AutoBlogGreen, Mr Gas offers pumps with a 6% blend of Ethanol at their stations which are located in Ontario and Quebec (they have about 40 locations). Check out they're website for more info: http://www.mrgasltd.ca/. While I do agree E6 is minimal, I believe it's still worthly of mentionning. Mr Gas is independent. It was going at 1.15/ltr on the 25 Feb. while regular gas was at 1.12/ltr.
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psarhjinian 12:38AM (2/26/2008)
Most pumps in Canada are labelled "May contain up to 10% ethanol" on the 87- and 89-octane options. E6 isn't anything to write home about.
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