British Columbia is implementing new measures to boost Canadian biofuel production and provincial energy independence as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats are expected to unroll early next week.
The province is making legal changes to prioritize Canadian biofuel that meets the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), said Adrian Dix, B.C. minister of Energy and Climate Solutions, on Thursday.
Crafted in 2010, the LCFS requires transportation fuel suppliers to blend a minimum amount of renewable fuels, also known as biofuels, into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel to lower the amounts of planet-warming carbon pollution produced by burning them.
Starting immediately, the renewable content for diesel fuels will increase to eight per cent from four per cent, and by April 1, that content must be produced in Canada, Dix said. Changes for gasoline are slated later — on Jan. 1, 2026, when five per cent of Canadian biofuels must be included.
The move reflects the province’s commitment to a cleaner, reliable, resilient Canadian fuel supply, Dix in a statement.
“By increasing the Canadian biofuel content in our transportation fuels, we will support local producers, protect jobs and reduce our dependence on foreign energy,” he said.
The content requirements will stabilize the biofuel market and support B.C. companies like Tidewater Renewables in Prince George, Parkland in Burnaby, and Consolidated Biofuels in Delta, Dix said.
The provincial announcement is a reaction to former U.S. president Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act measures that have subsidized American renewables, making them cheaper when imported into the Canadian market and undercutting B.C. companies, said Werner Antweiler, associate professor with the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.
Trump has launched various attacks on the IRA — a multi-pronged, multi-billion dollar investment into climate and clean energy — but to date hasn’t scuppered it completely.
In January, Tidewater Renewables announced it was filing a complaint with the Canadian Border Services Agency seeking countervailing and anti-dumping duties be applied to American biofuel imports.
While a countervailing duty would level the playing field for Canadian producers over the long term, it would take time to implement, particularly with Trump’s threats causing seismic changes in the trade arena, Antweiler said. By contrast, B.C.’s new Canadian content mandate offers immediate relief to provincial renewable companies.
“We’re in a situation where we need action fast, because a company like Tidewater Renewables in Prince George is underwater otherwise,” Antweiler said.
The B.C. move is a good first step in creating fairness around imported biofuels and moving toward an economically viable Canadian renewablefuel industry, said Jeremy Baines, president and CEO of Tidewater Renewables.
The company wants to be a leader in the energy transition and create made-in-BC energy solutions and good, paying jobs which help meet provincial and federal emission reduction targets, Baines said.
Mark Zacharias, executive director of Clean Energy Canada, praised the announcement, noting it provides certainty to domestic biofuel producers and bolsters the national supply chain, as well as the province’s clean energy economy.
“In the face of potential U.S. tariffs, these changes will create jobs here in B.C., while doing our part for the climate,” Zacharias said.
An even playing field between the two trading partners would be the preferable option to drive the wider renewables sector, Antweiler said.
However, the B.C. response is justifiable, he added.
“Mr. Trump wants to slap tariffs on everything we're shipping to them, so maybe this is actually an opportune time to say, ‘We’ve got to protect our Canadian market for this early industry,’” he said.
“Slamming the door shut [to U.S. products] is entirely understandable under the circumstances.
“I would hope in the long run, this would give way as the industry matures, and we open up trade with our American partners, to the extent that they open up the door for us.”
Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer
Comments
This is perhaps not a terrible idea, but only for the short term. Maybe it could have a longer term role in aviation, but other than that, the objective is to transition towards electric. Biofuels aren't as carbon neutral as they seem and they use up a bunch of land that we need for food production; pressure on land use will push deforestation, and so on. And so far, they're just extenders--nowhere does this article talk about use of pure biofuels, they're just using them to slightly reduce the carbon intensity of continued fossil fuel use. Which is to say, they're an excuse to keep on using those fossil fuels. Pretty much greenwashing.
So there should be NO "in the long run . . . as the industry matures". This is not an industry that should mature, it should disappear with ICE-based transportation.
Biofuels are one way to recycle used cooking oil. Just think, a million ICE cars in Metro Vancouver pumping the uniquely nauseating McDonald's beef tallow smell all over the city.
Maybe we should electrify more quickly.
Silly.
If you want to address the USA, buy up every billboard on the road to the border, fill with "Please Don't Go" signs. Do the same at the airport.
We haven't even really started yet, slow to anger, and all that. The only reason this 0.001% of the economy made it into a newspaper.