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ENERGY: Ottawa investing $638,559 in Aldersyde biodiesel plant
          (AlbertaIndex, November 19, Monday) --- The Canadian government is investing $638,559 in an $8-million biodiesel plant in Aldersyde town in Alberta. The 19-million-litre- per-year plant has also received direct equity investment from farmers totalling $275,000.  
         Alberta-based Western Biodiesel Inc is building the plant, which is expected to begin production next month.

Ted Menzies, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for Macleod, on behalf of Gerry Ritz, Canada’s Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board, said the federal ecoAgriculture Biofuels Capital (ecoABC) made the investment in support of the province’s biodiesel industry.

The plant will use canola oil and rendered beef tallow to produce biodiesel and raw glycerine, a co-product that can be refined for various uses in the chemical industry or used as a suitable boiler fuel.

The project will help Canada meet its target of an average of 2 per cent renewable fuel content in diesel fuel and heating oil by 2012 and broaden economic opportunities for the province and the country. The Canadian government is investing a total of $2.2 billion in its goal to raise renewable content in gasoline, diesel and heating oil.

“This announcement is another example of our government’s commitment to deliver results to the agricultural community as well as taking tangible action for our environment,” said Mr Menzies. “With this ecoABC initiative, this new state-of-the-art biodiesel plant in Aldersyde will benefit farm families, and also help strengthen the local community and our agriculture sector.”

“Through the federal ecoABC program, Western Biodiesel Inc. has been able to leverage farmers’ investment almost three times,” said Dean Cockshutt, Western Biodiesel Inc’s CEO. “This financial support will help create another significant increment of Canada’s biofuels production capacity.”

The ecoABC initiative was launched by the Canadian government in April 2007. The initiative is part of the government’s renewable fuels strategy that focuses on increasing the demand for renewable fuels through various means such as regulation, assisting farmers to enter this sector of the economy and accelerating the commercialization of new technologies.

The ecoABC initiative is a $200 million, four-year program that provides repayable contributions for the construction or expansion of transportation biofuel production facilities. Funding is conditional upon agricultural producer investment in the biofuel projects and the use of agricultural feedstock to produce the biofuel.

The initiative is part of more than $500 million announced by the federal government to assist farmers and rural communities seize new market opportunities in the agricultural bioproducts sector through biofuels and bioproducts initiatives.

The ecoABC initiative is delivered nationally by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. It is designed to provide an opportunity for agricultural producers to diversify their economic base and participate in the biofuel industry through equity investment/ownership in biofuel production facilities.

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