CTA Submits Comments on Clean Fuel Standard Regulatory Framework

CTA recently submitted comments to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) on the regulatory framework of the upcoming federal Clean Fuel Standard regulation.

The Clean Fuel Standard will establish lifecycle carbon intensity requirements separately for liquid, gaseous and solid fuels that are used in transportation, industry and buildings, with the goal of reducing annual GHG emissions in Canada by 30 megatonnes by 2030.

In its comments, CTA reiterated to government that with increasing environmental policies coming into force, readily-available fuel technology and infrastructure has not kept pace with the trucking industry’s desire to reduce its carbon footprint.

“CTA fully supports the reduction of carbon emissions, but in trucking there are short-haul and long-haul companies – the latter consuming the bulk of the fuel,” says CTA president Stephen Laskowski. “Although low carbon technologies like natural gas and electric engines have less operational, infrastructure and supply chain challenges for short-haul trucking, government must be made aware of the technological impediments for long-haul fleets.”

Additional issues CTA highlighted include the need for the government, industry stakeholders and the trucking industry to work together to develop a vision on the future of low carbon fuels in the trucking industry while creating a roadmap to address concerns for both short and long-haul fleets. CTA also encouraged the government to offer industry incentives to adopt low-carbon fuels such as natural gas or electric trucks.

Multiple stakeholder meetings on the standard will continue to take place over the next several months. ECCC anticipates a draft standard being published in Canada Gazette I by fall 2018, and the final regulation in mid-2019. A timeline for when the policies would come into effect have not been established, but ECCC has indicated that plenty of lead-time will be given to industry to ensure they will be compliant.