Ontario premier backtracking on E10 promise
The new backlash against ethanol as a fuel is causing the premier of Canada's largest province to rethink a plan that would have doubled the ethanol content of gasoline fuels by 2010. With more and more people blaming the diversion of food to fuel production for skyrocketing food prices, a lot of the support for biofuels is starting to fade. Premier Dalton McGuinty is the latest to reverse course on a plan that would have required 10 percent ethanol content in gasoline by 2010. Leaders at the G8 summit in Japan this week declared that food security needed to take priority over biofuels. McGuinty has now decided that food costs need to be looked before the E10 plan moves forward. He wants to make sure the province's biofuel plans don't contribute to increased costs of food. [Source: Globe and Mail]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
david burgdorff 9:43AM (7/11/2008)
Canada is a food exporting nation. High food prices are good for Canada. Are there really so many idealistic people in Canada. Its refreshing!
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tankd0g 1:15PM (7/11/2008)
I suspect most if not all of the ethanol would come from heavily subsidized US farmers and the higher food prices might benifit Canadian farmers in the short term but the cost of farming that food would soon catch up.
This is the main difference between the Canadian and US governments. Our leaders are still expected to work for the benefit of the majority of the population not the biggest lobby. A precious few benefit from higher food prices, all of Canada has to eat. Unfortunately I'm seeing more and more bowing to special interest groups, which is what brought about this E10 idea in the first place.
CanaDoc 12:41PM (7/11/2008)
This comment gets posted daily, but I'm still hoping biodiesel doens't suffer because of ethanol's bad press. It's bad enough that our nation's capital only has ONE retail biodiesel station! If enough uninformed people lump all biofuels into the 'food vs fuel backlash', it'll be too easy for the masses to jump the bandwagon and declare biodiesel guilty by association.
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jpm100 1:14AM (7/12/2008)
You mean like how 'cellulosic ethanol' will likely be viewed.
Its funny how that works to the advantage of those who want to keep us on oil.
Stéphane Dumas 1:00PM (7/11/2008)
CanadaDoc have a point there. I hope then the 2nd-gen biofuels like cellulosic ethanol or even the 3rd-gen biofuels like algae don't suffer about this either (there even some possiibilities to create ethanol from aglae like Algenol currently works on this http://www.algenolbiofuels.com/ )
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jpm100 1:51AM (7/12/2008)
10% ethanol is an anti-pollution product for reasons other than C02. I'm surprised proponents would take that lying down.
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