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Biofuel Bill Changes Proposed
NEW ZEALAND - The majority report of a New Zealand parliamentary committee has recommended Parliament pass with amendments a Biofuels Bill that would mandate that transport fuels contain specified percentages of biofuels.The report recommends that the mandate begin at 0.5% in 2008 and rise to 2.5% by 2012.
"We were advised that the level of 2.5% by 2012 could be met through domestic production," says the majority report of the committee, which released its review of the bill today.
The original version of the bill proposed a 2012 obligation of 3.4%.
The committee also proposed new sustainability principles be inserted into the bill to require that biofuels:
- emit significantlyless greenhouse gas over their lifecycles than fossil fuels;
- not compete with food production or be produced using land of high value for food production; and
- not reduce indigenous biodiversity or adversely affect land with high conservation values.
Welcoming the report, Climate Change Minister David Parker said the amended bill "now requires annual reporting by oil companies against the sustainability principles in the bill and gives the Minister of Energy the right to request information on the source of any biofuel, the process by which it was produced, and its consistency with the sustainability principles".
The majority report recommends that the obligation be phased in from October 1.
In a minority report, the National Party oppose passage of the bill, describing it as "seriously flawed in its timing".
"It is madness that the mandatory sales obligation comes into effect before the regulations defining sustainable biofuels," their minority report says.
"A further mess in the policy is the incentive to use ethanol over biodiesel to meet the mandatory sales obligation," their minority report says.
"Ethanol has no greater environmental benefit than biodiesel yet receives a 42 cents per litre advantage, being exempt from excise tax," the minority report says.
TheBioenergySite News Desk
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