It's a significant driver of environmental innovation in Canada.
We would welcome government announcements under the NGBF and look forward to collaborating with the government to make these a reality in the immediate near term.
On the biodiesel side, our industry remains committed to ensuring that the Prime Minister's stated objective of 600 million litres of domestic biodiesel production is met. Our members currently have operating capacity of 110 million litres of production, and we have a new plant coming online this year that will add 250 million litres of production in Lloydminster.
Like ethanol, the most important piece of the puzzle is the mandate. Again, the government has demonstrated a lot of leadership in this regard. These mandates must be maintained and even grown. Our association has been steadfast in its position that mandates drive investment, and the CRFA is calling for progressive increases to the renewable diesel mandate to make it up to 5% by 2020.
Our country is blessed with a bounty of natural resources, but we cannot and should not rely on this wealth alone to meet all of our energy needs. I want to be very clear about our support for oil and gas exploration in Canada. The development of Canada's energy sector will drive consumption of all products, including ours.
I would point out to this committee, however, that every litre of biofuel we make and consume in Canada is one litre of petroleum-based fuel that we can export into the global market and hopefully sell at a global market price. The simple fact is that we, like other countries around the globe, are facing real challenges in terms of our climate and our environment. Diversifying our fuel mix and promoting the development of innovative renewable fuels is the government's single best policy option for addressing all of these environmental and energy challenges.
For your part, ensuring policy stability and maintaining market access through the federal mandate will turn our industry's innovations into Canada's successes.
Thank you. I look forward to answering your questions.
Again, I apologize if I was going too quickly.