Bioenergy progress in Canada despite slow-moving policy delivery

Colin Ley analyses the situation in Canada in this incisive regional focus, exclusively for Bioenergy Insight
Wildfires raging across Canada in recent months have highlighted the increasingly fragile state of the natural environment while also drawing attention to the need for renewable solutions to be applied to the country’s future energy mix.
While vast areas of the country were burning, however, there were still leaders in some provinces arguing fiercely against federal government moves away from coal as a continuing power source. In what amounts to a complex mix of political and public attitudes, bioenergy sector representatives and observers are constantly voicing their frustration at their nation’s ability to move so slowly on policy plans and promises.
“The forest fire situation here has been appalling in recent months,” Gordon Murray, executive director of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada, told Bioenergy Insight. “By supreme good fortune, pellet production operations haven’t been disrupted to date by...