Where are we at with biofuels?

 I work out of my basement office, so it is easy for me to loose track of things. But as we observe Earth Day this week I was just trying to update myself on who is producing biofuels in Western Canada.

Husky has a four-year-old ethanol plant at Lloydminster, Sask. and an upgraded facility at Minnedosa MB, and Poundmaker at Lannigan, Sask. has been operating for many years. There is a fairly new 25 million litre ethanol plant owned by NorAmera BioEnergy Corp. at Weyburn, Sask.  But is there anyone else?

Three or four years ago, at farm meetings, if you weren’t ready to invest in your local, neighborhood biofuel project you were disrespecting motherhood and missing out on a great industry-saving opportunity. When all these ethanol and biodiesel facilities began operating there was a real risk of a shortage of canola margarine, and even wheat to make the bread to spread it on.

I recall at one conference there was a brawl in the alley between a group of biofuel project organizers and a committee planning a producer-run meat packing plant. They were squabbling over available land for their developments. All seems pretty quiet today.

I was just reading this morning a company called BioStreet Canada is working on plans to build a biodiesel plant at Vegreville, AB. They are a bit behind with their plans. It was supposed to be open in 2008 and now they are looking at 2012, but it doesn’t sound like they’ve poured any footings yet.

I’m not trying to be cynical, but I was just curious if there was a flourishing biofuel industry out there and I was missing it.

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