Ontario corn growers pleased with plans to double ethanol content in gasoline

Ontario corn growers pleased with plans to double ethanol content in gasoline
Dec 05, 2017

Gasoline suppliers in the province could have to comply by 2020

By Diego Flammini
News Reporter
Farms.com

Corn producers in Ontario are encouraged by the provincial government’s plans to increase the amount of ethanol required in gasoline by 2020.

The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change is proposing to double the ethanol content in gasoline from 5 per cent to 10 per cent within the next three years, according to Environmental Registry documents.

The proposal would also require the ethanol to be about 35 per cent lower in greenhouse gas emissions than current gasoline.

More ethanol in gasoline means more marketing opportunities for farmers, says Earl Barlow, who grows about 4,000 acres of corn, soybeans and wheat in Binbrook, Ont.

“It’s definitely good news for producers,” he told Farms.com today. “I would estimate about a third of our corn is already sold to an ethanol plant, so this may allow us to sell even more.”

But the facility Barlow ships his corn to is located in Medina, N.Y.

He’s hopeful increased ethanol needs could mean more Canadian facilities – especially one in his region.

“It’s closer and better for us to truck our corn (to New York) than it is to the (IGPC Ethanol) plant in Aylmer,” he said. “We should have a good facility down on the Burlington Bay. If we’re going to expand ethanol production, that would be a pretty good spot to put it because you’ve already got port facilities and highway access with the QEW.”

The provincial plan would cut carbon emissions in Ontario by about two megatonnes per year. That decrease is equivalent to taking 130,000 cars off the road, Chris Ballard, Ontario’s Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, told CBC yesterday.

The federal government is also considering an increase in the national ethanol requirements in gasoline, which are currently set at 5 per cent.

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