The Queensland parliament on December 1 passed legislation that requires the fuel industry to meet targets for the sale of biofuels in the Australian state.
The bill sets an initial 3% ethanol mandate for petrol and a 0.5% bio-based diesel mandate. Both are due to start on January 1, 2017. This means that E10 ethanol-blended petrol will need to make up 30% of petrol sales in Queensland in 2017.
Queensland’s minister for energy and water supply, Mark Bailey, said the mandates would help the state move to a clean energy economy, grow the biofuels and bio-manufacturing industries and stimulate jobs.
The government will create a fuel sellers register to track biofuel sales and monitor the performance of fuel sellers in fulfilling the minimum sales requirements.
The government has also proposed pathways for raising the mandates over time. The proposals call for ethanol sales to increase to 4% of sales from July 1, 2019 or from July 1, 2020, depending on the pathway option.
The sales of ethanol-blended fuel in Queensland have dropped from a high of about 900 million litres in 2010 to around 350 million litres in 2013/14, representing slightly more than 1% of petrol sales, ABC News reported.
Provided by SeeNews exclusively for Essentica.
