CHARBONNEAU – Proposed Tk’emlúps biomass fuel refinery gets Trump bump

PRESIDENT TRUMP has, perhaps advertently, given a break to North American biomass fuel producers. In his war on sanity, Trump is not known to help former friends.

Trump’s act before the Senate, cleverly named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, removes stipulations in Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. In Biden’s act, feedstock for clean fuels from Canadian canola was ineligible for tax credits.

The Beautiful Bill (section 45Z) gives a boost to refineries that produce fuels  from renewable biomass sources such as canola, corn, soybeans, or used cooking oil.

The tax credit will aid in the production of biomass fuels for all: U.S., Canada and Mexico. The credit seems contrary to Trump’s beautiful tariffs.

Maybe he didn’t actually read his One Big Beautiful Bill Act.  It’s an omnibus bill over 1,100 pages long.

The Beautiful Bill gives heightened interest in biomass fuel refineries such as the one proposed across the river from my house in Westsyde.

Announced more than a year ago, now Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (TteS) is seeking input from band members as to whether the proposed 7Mile Renewable Fuels Project should move forward.

The refinery would turn vegetable oils into Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Promoters of the refinery say SAF is already being used by carriers like Air Canada and WestJet.

The 7 Mile project is just one of three proposed by Azure Sustainable Fuels. They are talking to Indigenous groups in Manitoba and Ontario as well. If talks are successful, only one will proceed to completion.

I hope it’s one of the others. Odors and potential pollutants are trapped in our river valleys, especially during thermal inversions.

Canada currently has 10 biomass fuel facilities. While we are a net exporter of refined petroleum products and crude oil products, we are a net importer of biomass fuels. New biomass fuel refineries could reverse that with Canadian made fuels.

Others have picked up on the breaks included in the Beautiful Bill.

Imperial Oil Ltd. recently announced that its renewable diesel facility located near Edmonton will start operations in mid 2025.

It’s good news for Canadian canola farmers as well who have also faced 100- per cent tariffs on canola oil from China.

China introduced the tariffs in March in retaliation for Ottawa’s tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles.

The Beautiful Bill breathes life into ambitious plans to expand canola oil plants in Saskatchewan, Canada’s largest canola-producing province.

Before Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, plans for  five new plants were announced for Saskatchewan in 2021. Only one has come online. Others are in progress, behind schedule, indefinitely on pause or have not even broken ground.

Reasons for delays include trade uncertainty with the U. S. and concerns about a potential new conservative government in Ottawa that would kill Canada’s Clean Fuel Regulations.

Canadian canola farmers and biomass fuel refineries are holding their breath, waiting for the bill to pass the U.S. Senate.

Given the belligerent orange man in the White House, it’s unfathomable how Biden’s act not only survived but was improved on.

David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.