By Steve Scherer and Rod Nickel
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Canada will delay the start date of its regulation to reduce the carbon intensity of gasoline and diesel by seven months, but increase its stringency, according to a draft of the Clean Fuel Standard seen by Reuters.
The standard is one of the key pieces of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s plan to cut national emissions by 40-45% by 2030, from 2005 levels.
Under the Clean Fuel Standard, fuel suppliers will need to cut the carbon intensity – the quantity of carbon per unit of energy – of gasoline and diesel by about 15% by 2030 from 2016 levels, up from 13% in previous drafts of the regulation.
Fuel providers need to begin complying with the fuel standard on July 1, 2023, seven months later than the government was planning.
The Canadian Press first reported the changes.
“Stringency could have been stronger, but the long-term view is that this sets the framework for more assertive future action,” said Ian Thomson, president of Advanced Biofuels Canada, who has seen the final regulation. The industry group’s members include grain handler Archer-Daniels-Midland Co and refiner BP Plc.
“This reg represents a transition, not a revolution,” Thomson said.
The Canadian environment ministry had no immediate comment.
The Trudeau government first proposed the Clean Fuel Standard in 2016, and initially intended it to cover liquid, gaseous and solid fuels. It later focused on gasoline and diesel.
That narrowed focus and loopholes for fuel providers to apply credits have produced a watered-down version of what Ottawa initially envisioned, said Keith Stewart, senior energy strategist at Greenpeace Canada. He added that the government appears to have now raised the standard’s stringency to offset some of the moves it made earlier to weaken the regulation.
(Reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
