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Interview with Curtis Mearns: part 3 – biodiesel future
Curtis Mearns is CEO of Cascadia Biofuels. He kindly allowed us to interview him for TDI Curious. Here is the last of a three-part series of posts on this encounter. You can read the first post here and the second post here.
Andrew: Volkswagen is invested in two companies researching and producing synthetic fuels. Will we have these in Canada?
Curtis: I believe VW is involved with Choren in Germany and Iogen here in Canada. One of the future fuels VW has been investing in is the use of hemp as a feedstock. I think they are naming the finished product SunFuel. Industrial hemp shows great promise in France and for the Canadian hemp industry. It is believed that the farm lobby will overcome the political hang-up in due course:
A: Are cars and trucks the best use of biofuel? I have heard that stationary burners like furnaces and boilers used for generating steam use very dirty bunker fuel. Why not run these on biofuel? Wouldn’t there be a greater benefit?
C: Biofuels will work in all engines and it is only a matter of time and education that the message gets through to the consumer. The reason why consumers run dirty fuels is that they are cheaper. Dirty fuels are high in carbon, but over time, the carbon tax will change the value proposition. That’s when consumers will switch to cleaner burning fuels because it will be cheaper to go clean.
A: This week the price of a barrel of oil is slumming around the $60 mark. How will this impact the development of the renewable fuels industry here in Canada?
C: In the short term, it will cause a strain on the renewable and non-renewable industries alike until the supply imbalances get sorted out. It is inevitable and predictable that the price of oil will go up and up. Times are changing and it is time to support the renewable industry to gain some control over the future of energy prices. I really cannot hold out too much promise for first-generation biofuels, but the benefits of second-generation biofuels is the “holy grail” for future energy and liquid fuel supply.
A: Where do you see the biofuel industry 10 years out?
C: Well, here in BC the provincial biofuels mandate is essential to ensure there will be a demand for renewable fuels well into the future, and to create confidence for the private sector to make investments that translate into the prerequisite of return on investment. The magic happens when bioenergy waste is remediated, carbon is sequestered, and synthetic fuel output offsets demand, further reducing demand for petroleum products (which will reduce diesel prices). The bonus is making use of clean energy from waste.
Fundamentally, to shift consumer buying behaviour, the price of renewable fuels needs to be less than that of non-renewable fuels. Once the consumer makes the switch, society will benefit from reduced greenhouse gases and cleaner air. Not only is it fundamental to bring about this type of behavioural change, but the price to the consumer also needs to be such that good behaviour (use of clean energy) is rewarded.
The way forward is to stage a gradual price increase on non-renewable fuels to create greater demand for renewable fuels (which is a solid case for the carbon tax). We also need to establish economies of scale, shift taxes from the upstream (waste collection) to the pumps (by removing tax exemptions) and thereby creating a sustainable renewable fuels sector.
For example, the Mountain Pine Beetle (MPB) epidemic here in BC will force policy makers to rethink the concept of “stumpage fees”. There is no demand for MPB wood waste and this has caused forest companies to practice selective logging, leaving MPB timber to become a fire hazard that releases methane into the atmosphere as it decomposes. By tax shifting, MPB timber will be collected, turned into liquid fuel, sold into the refueling system, and taxed like any other fuel.
It is my firm belief that future fuels need to be derived from cheap local resources. In BC, tax policy is in place to reward consumers who purchase cleaner burning fuels. It is through consumer demand that the industry will transition from first-generation to second-generation fuels. At that point, educated consumers will change the marketplace with wise purchasing choices that will finally end our dependence on fossil fuels.
A: Thank you Curtis. Let’s finish this interesting interview with a video of Run for One Planet, a biodiesel event that you have supported.
C: Thank you Andrew.
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