Ontario Seeks Input On Renewable Fuel Standard

In the Climate Change Action Plan, the Ontario government committed to implement a renewable fuel standard that would reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) from gasoline by 5% by 2020. As we explained in an earlier post, this is in addition to existing requirements for ethanol in gasoline and the Greener Diesel regulation.

On January 11, 2017, the Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change issued a discussion paper titled "Developing a modern renewable fuel standard for gasoline in Ontario." The discussion paper gives context to the requirement for a new renewable fuel standard, explaining that the transportation sector accounts for one third of Ontario's GHG emissions, and these emissions grew by 27% between 1990 and 2014 (while emissions as a whole fell by 6% during the same period). While the biggest contributor to increased emissions is freight transportation (diesel fuel), there have also been meaningful increases in GHG emissions from passenger