CRFA Report Need for Low-Carbon Fuels Getting renewable fuels on the political agenda this year will be a tough order. By Scott Jamieson 200 delegates gathered in December for the Ninth Annual Renew-able Fuels Summit. The past year may have been rough on the sector, but overall a climate of urgency prevailed. Hosted by the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA), the event brings together biodiesel and ethanol producers from across Canada, as well as researchers, suppliers, and govern-ment officials. Outgoing chair Tim Haig opened the conference by congratulating so many sector leaders for attending after a tough year. Despite uncertain markets, poor growing conditions in the United O ver States, high corn prices, and the re-emer-gence of the food-versus-fuel debate that many had hoped was over, Haig pointed to the long-term opportunities laid bare by climate change meetings like the Doha Round underway at the same time. “They show the need for low-carbon transport fuel solutions.” pOlitical hurDles They indeed show the need, but the ques-tion is who’s paying attention among Canada’s political class? According to key-note speaker Chantal Hébert, very few. As a longtime and award-winning political analyst and reporter with the Toronto Star, Hébert is ideally placed to provide the biofuels sector with a roadmap of the cur-rent Canadian federal and provincial politi-cal landscape. She cautioned that it’s not an ideal time to accomplish much on the en-vironmental or energy sustainability front. “I think it’s fair to say that energy is-sues, including the environment, are the constitutional debate of our time. Yet unlike that issue, there are no larger goals, no clear national objec-tives, no competing visions. The fed-eral government is not addressing the issue in any meaningful way, so they are leaving it to others to define the debate.” Add to that the perception that the 26 Canadian BIOMASS January/February 2013
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