Transport Biofuel Production, Trade-offs, and Promotion Policies in Canada — A Review

This review on biofuel policy, production status and studies on economic rationale has brought out that (a) Canada has huge fossil energy and is relatively free from the future energy insecurity; (b) the diversion of feed grains to biofuel production benefited the crop growers due to increased grain prices but adversely affected the livestock farmers, and consumers; (c) the biofuel production receives huge financial and market support from the government; (d) the environmental benefits of biofuels are meagre and too costly; and (e) the production of biofuels is a source of various multi-level latent conflicts. This experience suggests a re-direction of the policy towards increased research and development support for second generation biofuels.