Prime Minister Mark Carney is pledging another $370 million in subsidies for the struggling biofuels sector even as federal records show years of expensive failures. Blacklock's Reporter says the cash is aimed at ethanol and biodiesel producers who cannot keep up with Ottawa’s own climate mandates.“The government will make targeted amendments to Clean Fuel Regulations to spur the development of a vibrant biofuels industry in Canada,” Carney told reporters Friday. He said new incentives would help domestic producers compete with low-cost imports flooding in from the United States..Clean Fuel Regulations introduced in 2023 require increasing use of ethanol and biodiesel in gasoline and diesel, a mandate Ottawa itself admitted Canadian producers cannot meet. Cabinet has already estimated the rules will add 13¢ to a litre of gasoline and 16¢ to diesel. A May 14 Environment Canada briefing note said bluntly, “Canada’s low carbon fuel industry is struggling.”The industry has already received billions in taxpayer subsidies. The EcoEnergy for Biofuels program launched in 2007 cost $672 million, paying up to 10¢ per litre for ethanol and 20¢ per litre for biodiesel. .A 2010 mandate required minimum blends of 5% ethanol in gasoline and 2% biodiesel in diesel. A proposal to force homeowners to buy heating oil blended with biofuels was abandoned after public backlash.The Macdonald-Laurier Institute in a 2014 study called Ottawa’s biofuel strategy an “expensive giveaway” and a “dismal failure,” estimating Canadians paid between $3 and $3.50 for every $1 in environmental benefits. Researchers said subsidies and mandates distorted markets, raised food prices, and harmed other industries without delivering meaningful climate gains.Despite the record, Carney is promising still more subsidies, with officials acknowledging many Canadian biofuel projects have been “paused or cancelled.”
