OTTAWA — Three years after announcing $2 billion in subsidies for the biofuels industry, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has decided to probe whether the so-called renewable fuels might actually be harming the environment.
In a notice posted this month, Environment Canada said it plans to award a contract for consultants to study whether production of the fuels, which can be derived from crops or waste products, do more damage to air and land than gasoline.
"Liquid biofuels were initially viewed as an overall environmentally beneficial alternative to traditional hydrocarbon-based liquid fuels," said the notice. "However, recent studies in the United States suggest that this might not always be the case."
The notice, which estimates spending between $50,001 to $100,000 for the study, says the government should examine whether its current modelling tool used to predict impacts of transportation fuels is adequate for assessing biofuels.
"Most importantly, little information exists from a Canadian context. Therefore, there is a need for the development and provision of information from a Canadian context to enable Environment Canada scientists to better understand the environmental performance from liquid biofuels production," said the notice. "Performance . . . is expected to vary considerably based on type of feedstock, conversion processes utilized, scale of operations, and location of facilities."
While ministers in the Harper government and industry stakeholders have long touted the benefits of biofuels, scientists at Environment Canada have repeatedly tried to warn the government that the impacts may outweigh the benefits.
"Feedstocks and biofuel production consume large amounts of water, natural gas, biomass, electricity and fertilizers," said a briefing note drafted in May 2006 and sent to former environment minister Rona Ambrose by the technology strategies and climate change division at Environment Canada.
The briefing note was previously released to Canwest News Service under the Access to Information Act, and included warnings that the consumption of biofuels could cause new air pollution emissions, while driving up the cost of gasoline at the pumps.
"Based on global Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) of biofuel production, impacts on acidification, land degradation, waste generation, water use and human and environmental impacts were found more often to be unfavourable than favourable."
Gordon Quaiattini, president of the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, could not be reached for comment, but he has previously downplayed such warnings, saying they are based on analysis of outdated technologies from other countries.
The government adopted legislation to regulate new targets for biofuels in 2008. They require that gasoline contain an average renewable fuel content of five per cent and that diesel contain an average renewable fuel content of two per cent starting this year.
The government has also offered $1.5 billion in subsidies over the next decade mainly to support farmers, agricultural and energy companies which produce ethanol from corn or wheat. To date, it has already signed agreements awarding nearly $1 billion of that total.
Environment Canada's research suggested that ethanol produced from waste products is much more sustainable, but the government created a smaller fund of $500 million, specifically to support this type of "next generation" ethanol that is being distributed by Sustainable Development Technology Canada, an arms-length organization which supports clean energy projects.
When asked why the government was providing hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to the industry before it had analyzed the ecological impacts, the office of Environment Minister Jim Prentice referred the question to his department.
"The commissioning of this study does not presuppose that there are any harmful effects from these facilities nor does it change the Government of Canada's commitment to renewable fuels," said Environment Canada spokeswoman Sujata Raisinghani in an e-mail. "Government of Canada research points to the potential for significant environment benefits associated with greenhouse gas reductions from renewable fuels over their life cycle."
Harper's former director of communications, Kory Teneycke, led a team of industry stakeholders that successfully lobbied the government to promote biofuels, before he joined the prime minister's office.
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