Duelling biofuel reports paint a very different picture of the impact of biofuel mandates.

Former environmental official defends biofuels

A former Ontario official is taking on financial heavyweights in a new report

Former Ontario environment commissioner Gord Miller is taking on some financial heavyweights in his ongoing defence of government support for biofuels. In a report called Staying the Course, Miller blasts the Ecofiscal Commission, an economics think-tank, for calling for an end to the federal and provincial biofuel mandates because they’re too costly for the environmental

The U.S. renewable fuel standard is just one of many things on hold as the new U.S. administration takes power.

In Trump freeze, U.S. agencies delay rules affecting farms

The move creates an air of uncertainty surrounding key provisions, such as the U.S. renewable fuel standard

U.S. regulators under the new presidential administration have instituted a freeze on rules key to the country’s Farm Belt, agricultural groups said Jan. 26, heightening uncertainty for some of the regions that helped propel Donald Trump into office. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will delay implementation of this year’s biofuels requirements along with 29 other regulations


Ottawa needs to get serious about encouraging renewable fuels

Ottawa needs to get serious about encouraging renewable fuels

A constantly churning industry with various provincial standards 
isn’t a good foundation for growth, proponents say

If the federal government wants to see renewable fuels attracting investment and growing, it needs to set a national standard and provide stability. That’s according to Warren Mabee, public policy professor at Queen’s University, speaking at the Renewable Fuels Canada Forum, held recently in Ottawa. Sticking with the existing provincial standards means every province goes

Editorial: Where have all the good times gone?

Editorial: Where have all the good times gone?

Lately, it’s seemed like one story after another about a record or near-record harvest has passed across my desk. In November, the USDA upped their estimate of an already-record 2016-17 crop. The agency said soybeans would come in at 4.269 billion bushels and corn at 15.057 billion bushels. Market watchers, already expecting a big crop,


Pressure is growing from gasoline refiners to rethink the structure of biofuel mandates.

U.S. refiners revamp operations as renewable fuel costs surge

Pressure is building to tweak renewable fuel standards as refiner profit margins are crushed

U.S. oil refiners, beset by the weakest profit margins in six years, have been laying off workers, revamping operations and ratcheting up pressure on regulators and lawmakers to tweak the renewable fuel program, whose costs have ballooned. The top 10 U.S. independent refiners look set to take a record hit on renewable fuel credits this

corn and ethanol

Canadian biofuels are a success story

Well-designed renewable fuel policies can be good for the environment, the economy, and agricultural producers

In an opinion piece published in a recent edition of this paper (Biofuels are one of our greatest environmental blunders), Gwyn Morgan questions the benefits of biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Mr. Morgan would have it that biofuels are a “blunder.” In our opinion, biofuels are a home run for the environment and the rural


Biofuels are mankind’s greatest blunder

Biofuels are mankind’s greatest blunder

Proponents of biofuels are simply refusing to count their true environmental cost

Are biofuels really greener than the fossil fuels they displace? In a recent column I pointed out that electric cars are only as green as the fuel used to generate the electricity they consume. For internal-combustion-powered vehicles, much of the focus has been on trying to reduce carbon emissions by adding ethanol to gasoline and

Close-up of corn kernels

Once again, big crops cost extra for the U.S. taxpayer

Longtime observers of the farm economy say it’s cheaper to control production than to offset low prices

The board of directors of the U.S. National Farmers Union passed a resolution on the farm economy at its June meeting. In part, the ratified resolution calls for “corrective action and evaluation of price support levels” so that farm programs can serve to minimize the farm income drop.” Farmers have become alarmed about the farm


Think food prices are high? Get ready for higher

Think food prices are high? Get ready for higher

Growing demand for 'organic' or 'natural' products will only increase the cost of food further, and reduce farm productivity

Food prices are up four per cent over last year in Canada — mainly because of the cheap loonie and more expensive imports. This has come as a shock to Canadians used to spending an ever-declining share of income on food. Worse yet, further increases likely await — and for a very different, more permanent

Andy Martin (l) of Providence College discusses cattail biomass with Dimple Roy (c) and Richard Grosshans (r) of the International Institute for Sustainable Development.

Manitoba college heats campus with cattails

Using cattails to provide heat makes wetlands more economically viable and therefore more likely to be retained

A local college says biomass pellets that include cattails harvested from wetlands in the province have heated their campus through the worst of the winter. Providence University Col­lege in Otterburn has been burning biomass since 2011 and in January of this year it used the first of the pellets made from a combination of wood