Environmental impact of ethanol fuel overstated

OTTAWA — Ottawa's push to use high-level ethanol fuel in cars is doing little or nothing to cut Canada's greenhouse gas emissions nor will it, says a government briefing note prepared for Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt and obtained by Canwest News Service.

Moreover, government officials have warned Raitt that giving automakers credits toward new fuel efficiency standards by making cars that can use environmentally friendly E85 fuel will not actually reduce emissions because those cars will never actually use the 'green' fuel and will continue to use regular gasoline.

"The point the document is making is fairly straightforward — promoting E85 has no environmental benefits," said Matthew Bramley, climate change director for the advocacy group Pembina Institute.

Fuel that contains 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent gasoline is generally referred to as E85 fuel. While almost any car engine can run on E10 fuel — gasoline with 10 per cent ethanol — only specially modified vehicles can use E85 fuel.

Ethanol is a renewable source of energy derived from corn or other plant products.

The Conservative government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars subsidizing the production of ethanol or offering rebates to consumers to buy E85 vehicles — but the briefing note says none of that money has or will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"The chance for reducing emissions through changing fuels is very limited at best," said Bramley.

Cars and light trucks that can use either E85 fuel or regular gas are known generically as flex fuel vehicles or FFVs.

The briefing note was written in March and obtained under federal access to information laws. Parts of the note have been blacked out.

In the note, Raitt is cautioned about the "implications" of promoting the use of E85 fuel.

The federal government has spent millions of dollars on rebates to consumers who buy FFVs and are allowing carmakers to earn special 'green' credits for manufacturing FFVs — even though there are just four gas stations in the entire country that sell the special E85 blend.

The memo to Raitt notes that "stakeholders, including fuel providers, auto manufacturers and governments, are currently seeking to claim greenhouse gas emission reductions from the production and use of ethanol blends and FFVs."

But the note, which is signed by Cassie Doyle, the deputy minister in Raitt's department, says the government needs to be cautious in advancing those claims, advising Raitt that work must be done to "carefully assess the implications of actively promoting the production and use of E85 in Canada."

E85 fuel is available in only four locations, so the 300,000 or so FFVs now on the road use regular gasoline, which, when burned in a car engine, is a major contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that causes climate change.

"Given that E85 (fuel) is not sold in significant quantities, these credits (to manufacturers) are not tied to actual GHG emission reductions because Canada's FFVs are fuelled almost exclusively with gasoline," the briefing note says.

Indeed, Doyle's memo notes that manufacturers are planning to increase production of FFVs even though "there is no evidence that substantial amounts of E85 fuel will be available to Canadian consumers in the short-term or medium-term."

Doyle notes that the U.S. government is also giving special credits to carmakers in that country for making FFVs but notes that, unlike Canada, the U.S. has put a cap or an upper limit on the amount of credits that carmakers can earn for FFV production.

Bureaucrats at Natural Resources Canada have also calculated that pushing for greater use of E85 fuels could be costly — E85 fuel costs more at the pump and often is produced with heavy government subsidies — and with little apparent benefit.

"The regulated mandate for renewable alternatives to gasoline will deliver an equivalent GHG emission reduction regardless of whether it is through the use of E10 or E85 ethanol blends.

"Thus, given the supply-constrained environment for ethanol fuel, there are disadvantages to promoting the use of high-level ethanol blends when compared to low-level blends."

E10 fuel is a blend of 90 per cent gasoline and 10 per cent ethanol. All cars can run on E10 fuel and, as a result, E10 fuel is widely available across Canada.

The federal government has announced that, by next year, all fuel sold in Canada must contain at least five per cent ethanol.

source: canada