03 December 2015
THE RACQ has criticised the State Government’s decision to introduce laws that will require fuel sellers to meet targets for the sale of ethanol-blended fuels.
Both petrol and diesel are part of the Bill passed by parliament, which will include an initial three per cent ethonal mandate for petrol, and half a per cent bio-based diesel mandate, starting January 1, 2017.
Energy Minister Mark Bailey said the mandates would stimulate economic growth by promoting the biofuel industry, while aiding a transition to clean energy. A study predicts bio-refining could contribute $1.8 billion in gross state product and create up to 6,640 jobs over 20 years. The RACQ is strongly against the mandate, however, pointing to the failure in NSW.
RACQ policy spokesman Michael Roth said the mandate was too high and could force service stations to remove regular unleaded.
“We estimate up to 15 percent of vehicles in Queensland are not compatible with E10 and if regular unleaded is unavailable they’ll be forced to pay extra for premium unleaded, at 12 cents per litre more than regular ULP.”
Extracted in full from The Queensland Times.
