With oil prices hitting yet another all-time high of $135 per barrel today, and gasoline and diesel prices continually rising across the country, the passage of this bill will help deliver choice and diversity at the pump for Canadians.

The passage of Bill C-33 is also critical to the development of next-generation biofuels in Canada. Without Bill C-33, the development of the next-generation of biofuels in Canada will not happen. Bill C-33 is the necessary step to achieve this next phase of biofuels innovation in Canada.

Advanced biofuels will be made from a vast array of biomass sources, including:

• Agricultural residues, such as straw from wheat and barley on the Prairies, stalks and cobs from corn in Ontario and Quebec, and vegetable and fruit residues from across Canada. Iogen, who has a partnership with Shell, is a Canadian world-leading biotechnology firm, currently using their enzyme technology to turn agricultural residues into cellulose ethanol at their demonstration facility in Ottawa.
• Forestry and wood waste, such as waste from the pulp and paper industry, and ruined wood from the pine beetle crisis. Lignol, who has a partnership with Suncor, is a Canadian company based in B.C. They have a solvent based pre-treatment technology that produces ethanol and biochemicals from Canadian softwood and hardwood forest biomass as feedstocks, and is one of the world's more promising cellulose to ethanol companies.
• Municipal solid waste (i.e. garbage). GreenField Ethanol, Canada's largest ethanol producer, and Enerkem, a leading gasification and catalysis technology company, have partnered to produce cellulosic ethanol on a commercial scale. The new technology converts biomass, such as sorted municipal solid waste and urban wood residues, into cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels. It eliminates more than two tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHGs) per tonne of residues used as feedstock.
• Carbon sink dedicated energy crops, such as switchgrass and algae. BIOX, Canada's largest biodiesel producer, is also a world-leader in researching and developing new feedstock sources for new next-generation biodiesel. One new feedstock holding untapped potential is algae, one of the world's largest carbon sinks, which can be sustainably grown and harvested, to soon produce an even less expensive and cleaner renewable biodiesel fuel.

Bill C-33 means adding to the fuel supply with home-grown clean biofuels, moderating prices at the pump, and allowing Canadians to keep more of their hard-earned dollars. Bill C-33 also means reducing air pollution and harmful greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90% with next-generation renewable fuels.