Bill C-30 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Very quickly, the plant we're proposing to build in Saskatchewan will have $20 million a year in straw purchases alone. That's not the jobs in the plant or the trucking jobs or anything like that. That's just for the straw.

Bill C-30 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Thank you very much for the question. Let me start off by saying that ethanol is ethanol. The molecule that we make at Iogen using cellulose is the same molecule as Mr. Baker makes using grain. Ethanol is ethanol. But you're right, our ethanol comes from various feedstocks that

Bill C-30 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  First of all, what was announced yesterday in Washington was an invitation to commence negotiations with the U.S. Department of Energy. It was not an award of funds. It was an announcement that they intend to start discussions for an award of up to $80 million U.S. That whole pro

Bill C-30 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  Absolutely. Basically, if you're looking at financing a project with a combination of equity and debt, I have a project financing bible on my desk, and there's a chapter in there that says “no new technology”--if you're a lender, do not take technology risk, because you'll go be

Bill C-30 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) committee  I don't intend to speak for ten minutes, Mr. Chair, but I thank you very much for the invitation to be here. Members, it's a pleasure for Iogen Corporation to have the opportunity to appear. I just want to echo the comments made by Canadian Renewable Fuels Association chair Bli

Agriculture committee  Switchgrass is a native prairie grass. It grew back in the days when the buffalo roamed. It's drought resistant, sends its roots down six feet, grows six feet tall, and is really thick and really dense. If you were looking at straw yields of a tonne an acre, you'd be looking at s

Agriculture committee  I guess I could only say that we started off looking at forest residues. The history of the country was first forest residues and then agricultural residues, but it was much easier to collect agricultural residues. The baling equipment and everything is all there, available. Gath

Agriculture committee  I have a very short answer: tax policy, tax policy, tax policy. What instruments does the federal government have at its disposal? It has public education, so it can create some market demand by educating people about ethanol; it has its own procurement, through its own vehicle f

Agriculture committee  I have a quick answer to that question as well. Again, it's a little bit anecdotal. In the Birch Hills area in Saskatchewan we have 32 rural municipalities. I mentioned that we have 600-odd farmers signed up, representing 32 rural municipalities. Earl Mickelson, who is kind of

Agriculture committee  Are you talking about cellulose ethanol?

Agriculture committee  The hesitancy has to do primarily with the size of the plant. In cellulose ethanol, we have the opposite situation compared to grain-based ethanol. Grain-based ethanol is low capital cost, higher operating cost. In cellulose ethanol, we have the reverse. We have high upfront capi

Agriculture committee  I'd like to address the question from the point of view of agricultural residues. As Kory said, a big part of our story is sustainability, and as Bliss said, if we don't have successful agriculture, we don't really have a business. From the point of view of gathering corn stover

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chairman, could I have just 10 seconds? I just heard a really good answer to that question provided by a professor at Argonne National Lab. He said, in terms of just showing what a red herring this is, society does not make energy decisions based on the question of energy b

Agriculture committee  First of all, let me say that the whole committee is invited to a tour of the plant. Iogen has a facility right here in Ottawa. If you want to come and see the site of an ethanol demonstration plant, many of your colleagues have been on tours in the past. To the question on subs

Agriculture committee  Well, there you go. That's a small community. The next biggest community is Prince Albert, which is 15,000 or 20,000 or so. Farmers are signed up and willing to sell us their straw, but you now need the government to take the lead in terms of policy instruments.