IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jagris/v2y2012i4p436-451d22242.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Policy Objectives of a Biofuel Industry in Canada: An Assessment

Author

Listed:
  • Danny G. Le Roy

    (Department of Economics, The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, T1K 3M4, Canada)

  • Kurt K. Klein

    (Department of Economics, The University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, T1K 3M4, Canada)

Abstract

Canada has a huge stock of biomass resources, which provides a basis (and a temptation) for development of a major bio-fuels industry. Both federal and provincial governments have engaged in a wide array of subsidies, mandates, and other measures to stimulate production and consumption of biofuels. As a result, biofuels has become a growth industry in Canada with production of ethanol almost 10 times higher than it was ten years earlier. However, this has come at considerable cost to taxpayers. Increased biofuel production has resulted in minimal reduction in greenhouse gases, short run (but not long run) increases in net farm income (that benefited grain and oilseed producers but hurt livestock producers), large increases in the prices of farm land due to the higher grain and oilseed prices, and minimal impacts on rural economic diversification.

Suggested Citation

  • Danny G. Le Roy & Kurt K. Klein, 2012. "The Policy Objectives of a Biofuel Industry in Canada: An Assessment," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-16, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:2:y:2012:i:4:p:436-451:d:22242
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/2/4/436/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/2/4/436/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian S. Freeze & T. Peters, 1999. "A Note on the Profitability of Wheat-ethanol-feedlot Production in Alberta," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 47(1), pages 67-78, March.
    2. Uwe Schneider & Bruce McCarl, 2003. "Economic Potential of Biomass Based Fuels for Greenhouse Gas Emission Mitigation," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 24(4), pages 291-312, April.
    3. Swenson, David A., 2006. "Input-Outrageous: The Economic Impacts of Modern Biofuels Production," Staff General Research Papers Archive 12644, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    4. Mitchell, Catherine & Connor, Peter, 2004. "Renewable energy policy in the UK 1990-2003," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(17), pages 1935-1947, November.
    5. Ryan, Lisa & Convery, Frank & Ferreira, Susana, 2006. "Stimulating the use of biofuels in the European Union: Implications for climate change policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 3184-3194, November.
    6. Henke, J.M. & Klepper, G. & Schmitz, N., 2005. "Tax exemption for biofuels in Germany: Is bio-ethanol really an option for climate policy?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(14), pages 2617-2635.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Danilo Bertoni & Daniele Cavicchioli & Franco Donzelli & Giovanni Ferrazzi & Dario G. Frisio & Roberto Pretolani & Elena Claire Ricci & Vera Ventura, 2018. "Recent Contributions of Agricultural Economics Research in the Field of Sustainable Development," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Sudip Das & V.S. Prakash Attili, 2022. "Data analysis of ethanol blended petrol programme of India," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2022(2), pages 171-191.
    3. Sudip Das, 2021. "A perspective of global biofuel policies," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2021(2), pages 45-75.
    4. Liu, Jiangui & Huffman, Ted & Green, Melodie, 2018. "Potential impacts of agricultural land use on soil cover in response to bioenergy production in Canada," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 33-42.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Charles, Michael B. & Ryan, Rachel & Ryan, Neal & Oloruntoba, Richard, 2007. "Public policy and biofuels: The way forward?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 5737-5746, November.
    2. Saunders, Caroline & Kaye-Blake, William & Marshall, Liz & Greenhalgh, Suzie & de Aragao Pereira, Mariana, 2009. "Impacts of a United States' biofuel policy on New Zealand's agricultural sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 3448-3454, September.
    3. Ujjayant Chakravorty & Marie-Hélène Hubert & Linda Nøstbakken, 2009. "Fuel Versus Food," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 645-663, September.
      • Ujjayant Chakravorty & Marie-Hélène Hubert & Linda Nøstbakken, 2009. "Fuel Versus Food," Post-Print halshs-01117673, HAL.
      • Chakravorty, Ujjayant & Hubert, Marie-Helene & Nostbakken, Linda, 2009. "Fuel versus Food," Working Papers 2009-20, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    4. Cansino, JM & Cardenete, MA & González-Limón, JM & Román, R, 2013. "Economic impacts of biofuels deployment in Andalusia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 274-282.
    5. Burnes, Ellen & Wichelns, Dennis & Hagen, John W., 2005. "Economic and policy implications of public support for ethanol production in California's San Joaquin Valley," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1155-1167, June.
    6. Jacinto F. Fabiosa & John C. Beghin & Fengxia Dong & JAmani Elobeid & Simla Tokgoz & Tun-Hsiang Yu, 2010. "Land Allocation Effects of the Global Ethanol Surge: Predictions from the International FAPRI Model," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 86(4), pages 687-706.
    7. Connor, Peter M. & Xie, Lei & Lowes, Richard & Britton, Jessica & Richardson, Thomas, 2015. "The development of renewable heating policy in the United Kingdom," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 733-744.
    8. Maung, Thein A. & McCarl, Bruce A., 2013. "Economic factors influencing potential use of cellulosic crop residues for electricity generation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 81-91.
    9. Butler, Lucy & Neuhoff, Karsten, 2008. "Comparison of feed-in tariff, quota and auction mechanisms to support wind power development," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1854-1867.
    10. Zhen, Wei & Qin, Quande & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2017. "Spatio-temporal patterns of energy consumption-related GHG emissions in China's crop production systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 274-284.
    11. Geels, Frank W. & Kern, Florian & Fuchs, Gerhard & Hinderer, Nele & Kungl, Gregor & Mylan, Josephine & Neukirch, Mario & Wassermann, Sandra, 2016. "The enactment of socio-technical transition pathways: A reformulated typology and a comparative multi-level analysis of the German and UK low-carbon electricity transitions (1990–2014)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 896-913.
    12. Hertel, Thomas W. & Tyner, Wallace E. & Birur, Dileep K., 2008. "Biofuels for all? Understanding the Global Impacts of Multinational Mandates," 2008 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2008, Orlando, Florida 6526, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    13. Szarka, Joseph, 2006. "Wind power, policy learning and paradigm change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(17), pages 3041-3048, November.
    14. Gustav Resch & Malte Gephart & Simone Steinhilber & Corinna Klessmann & Pablo del Rio & Mario Ragwitz, 2013. "Coordination or Harmonisation? Feasible Pathways for a European Res Strategy beyond 2020," Energy & Environment, , vol. 24(1-2), pages 147-169, February.
    15. Parag, Yael & Darby, Sarah, 2009. "Consumer-supplier-government triangular relations: Rethinking the UK policy path for carbon emissions reduction from the UK residential sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 3984-3992, October.
    16. Noel, Michael D. & Roach, Travis, 2017. "Marginal reductions in vehicle emissions under a dual-blend ethanol mandate: Evidence from a natural experiment," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 45-54.
    17. Toke, David, 2011. "The UK offshore wind power programme: A sea-change in UK energy policy?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 526-534, February.
    18. Babcock, Bruce A. & Marette, Stéphan & Tréguer, David, 2011. "Opportunity for profitable investments in cellulosic biofuels," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 714-719, February.
    19. Dominique Finon, 2006. "The Social Efficiency Of Instruments For The Promotion Of Renewable Energies In The Liberalised Power Industry," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(3), pages 309-343, September.
    20. Dudensing, Rebekka & Guerrero, Bridget & Amosson, Steve, 2019. "Evaluating the Accuracy of Regional Economic Impact Estimates: Considering a 2013 Beef Plant Closure in Texas," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 49(1), May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    biofuel; Canada; policy; economics;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jagris:v:2:y:2012:i:4:p:436-451:d:22242. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.