Alberta Government inaction in developing bioenergy

[WRAPper]

What should we be doing as farmers to try and get the government of Alberta to channel a portion of the dollars being sucked out from under our fields and pastures into research and development of new and better technologies to make bioenergy sources a better potential market for some of our crops.
Despite the fact the government is in the pockets of "big oil" I should think a major goal of a province such as this would be to maintain it's position as a leading energy supplier to North America and the world as they already are with fossil fuels.

With the American policies towards developing ethanol and biodiesel production we are seeing massive construction of plants in the northern tier states for facilities, one such plant in North Dakota is expected to use large volumes of Canadian canola when completed. To my mind we are letting the US develop the infrastructure and jobs that go with it and we are stupidly going along. Sound familiar?

My question to the government of Alberta is this are we going to once again put ourself into the position of raw material supplier to the US market and not keep these jobs and revenues at home, what happened to the province's goal of 2010 and this value added industry.
As well do we really want another situation like BSE where one day we wake up to a trade issue to find us with raw materials on one side of a trade barrier and the proccessing industry on the other.
Ralph is on a royal/prosperity tour handing out our dollars like a benevolent uncle. This government is sitting still with no direction and no game plan for windfall royalties and has lost any vision of a future for this province. Wouldn't this be a good place to start???

[charliep]

What should the provincial government do in terms of policy/other activities?

Just to put the tax side in place, Alberta government does not charge the road tax on ethanol (9 cents/l) as long as it is in a blend. The federal government doesn't charge the excise tax (10 cents/l). Nothing to date on bio diesel other than to note than some deadlines to reduce sulphur in diesel are looming and biodiesel is one route to get there.

I am doing some information gathering on money invested in research provincially. I note CAIT here but mainly other bio products.

http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/cait5071

I would note that the bio fuels industry will need commodity - low price grains (highlighted in other threads). Its benefit will be competition for feed grains market and perhaps a market for lower grade canola. The answer to this question may come from other agricultural products - straw (has been talked about here)/celluse from forestry industry or things like turnips for ethanol or rendered livestock by product in the case of biodiesel.

[WRAPper]

What about developing a bio energy canter of excellence at the Uof A as an offshoot of the Ag and Forestry Dept. Build a pilot scale ethanol and or biodiesel plant for the University farm where plant science students can develop procedures for high biomasss utilization or the engineering students can design and refine existing technology to make it more efficient and viable, Economics students can do work on feasibility and market development. Nothing says it has to be the traditional tax breaks, gov't grant type of initiative. We can do alot more if we develop technologies retain patents and alow free enterprise to develop industries. But when every student coming out of the universities today are seeing the energy industry as fossil fuels and are not being encouraged to look at other sources thats not forward thinking. Wind energy is a good example are the turbines and components that are going into these wind farms Canadian built, nope they are dutch and german and to a lessor extent American.
Why ? Because they did the work and reasearch and developed the technologies. Granted from what I have seen a portion of the ethanol industries growth in the states is more subsidy driven but have you traced where a portion of this years canola crush? It is heading towards Germany to go into biodiesel. They are developing the technolgy that we will have to pay to use here. John deere is developing a tractor that will be able to run fully on Canola biodiesel.

We are going to be using these fuels in future at least in blends at the very least I sure hope we aren't exporting oil and importing biodiesel when that day arrives because we let the industry develop elsewhere.

And yes Charlie I agree at this point the tallow /used veg oil is the most vaible way to produce biodiesel I hope the operation getting going in Lethbridge is a sucess. I'm just thinking what I am proposing would give a little sense of vision and goals to a dept. and government that I feel are struggling a bit with what to do to more this industry forward. The traditional methods of produce more and export it to a hungry world is doomed, we have to be looking at all aspects of utilization for our products.

[WRAPper]

I also started this thread to see if anyone else out there is interested in doing some thinking or work on trying and develop new markets for traditional or non traditional crops, tit is nice to see discussion on topics like this. So many other threads on here for the last years have featured the two guys sitting in the same rowboat both paddling furiously and each facing opposite directions. Round and round and round and getting no where.

[TOM4CWB]

Charlie;

What portion of Ab Ag's budget is spent on ethanol/biofuel R and D? Has the dept. identified this as a priority for the future in the 3 year plan... if so what is the expected Ab AG investment?

[TOM4CWB]

WRAPper;

Better to be in the row boat rowing... than on the shore not prepared to go when the opportunity presents itself!

Change in people's habits requires a pain for any gain 99% of the time!

CWB marketing is as close to a habit as any farm mangement practice could be IMHO.

It wouldn't be so bad if I could just change my CWB habits... but now I am forced to try to change my neighbour's habits on marketing grain... including those who don't even farm any more... or are hobby farmers.

Near an impossibility as it comes. Big Daddy has lots of cash... except when it comes to initial prices and final payments!

We who are not pimps want out!

The Big Daddy analogy is straight from the CWB's play book... I can quote Bob R. if you would like! And now his favorite student Deanna Allen is in charge of "farmer relations"! _ _ _

[charliep]

The area of bio products is a major focus of Alberta Agriculture without getting into the full numbers (gets pretty complicated when you look at all the university, research institutions and things like the crop industry development fund. May not be as much invested in the bio fuels area given much of the research work has been done elsewhere around the world.

The discussion is more like around implementation and level of government involvement. Does government do like the US and provide major incentives/tax breaks (push)? Do we really on the pull side (industry investment/consumer demand)? Does government work on creating opportunities through R&D (hopefully keeping commerialization here) and maintaining a good investment environment (Alberta Advantage if you like)?

[WRAPper]

Tom
I just prefer to work on problems/issues that I feel I can see some positive results from, you should know that about me by now I'm pretty results oriented, don't like getting bogged down in quagmires I don't have the patience for it. However, I don't think you can accuse me of standing on shore, though I have retreated from the middle of the ocean where I spent the last number of years I'm still wading in the shallows abit(enough alliteration) already sheesh lol.)
Also Tom would you start another thread and tell us about the marketing and production experience this year with your zero tannin fabbabeans(I think you grew some again) I'd like to hear how that's looking.
Thanks

[WRAPper]

Charlie,
I'm going to think about your question while I'm fencing this afternoon, can't be blowing our nicest weather of the fall at the computer.
But I do think the the pull model fits the Alberta model of government best, higher energy costs elsewhere will likely lead to development of technolgies that use alternative energy sources bio-energy, natural energy etc. Economic need creates innovation. However I do strongly believe that the money being made today must be invested in creating an economy of tommorrow, working on better technologies that make things like bio-fuels more economic and vaible and hopefully at 8.oo canola.
Nothing says we cannot develop the technologies here and sell them around the world and if we get so good at it it pencils to do a couple millions tonnes of canola at home into Bio diesel to be mixed off with that nice oilsands diesel so much the better, cleaner burning, better on the engines.
A good investment in my mind.

[TOM4CWB]

Wrapper;

Sorry about that... I couldn't resist!

Frustration with the lack of movement is complicated with the promises that the AB Gov. made that have not born fruit. For value added folks... a CWB is great if they are willing to play the CWB games.

Gov.'s will never willingly give up the levers of power over farmers and the AG Economy the CWB has created. These powers are just too addictive and tantilising.

[WRAPper]

Tom and charlie

You will both find this interesting ,

http://www.petroleumnews.com/pntruncate/455052233.shtml

off topic but it speaks to my theory of economic need and innovation and the need for goverments to sometimes kickstart tings like this.
I've been watching this technology for the last couple years and with the massive coal deposits in Alberta it may have a future here IF the policies support it, if not we'll see the infrastructure develop elsewhere and we can just ship them the coal. Sound familiar?