"Renewable energy push from oil spill"

With the ongoing sad events in the Gulf of Mexico, the Globe and Mail did a story a few days ago on the role that biodiesel will play in the coming years. Big mandates are around the corner, and there’s not enough local supply. Biox (BX:TSX), a Wellington Financial Fund III portfolio co., was featured in the piece:

Renewable energy push from oil spill

As the ecological and economic catastrophe of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill becomes more evident, the Obama administration has shaken up the agency faulted for lax regulation of offshore drilling, the one U.S. President Barack Obama said had a “cozy relationship” with oil companies. The new agency will also have a mandate for developing renewable energy.

The drilling disaster is focusing greater attention on renewable energy as a petroleum substitute with advocates expecting an effect on oil like the one the Three Mile Island accident had on stifling the nuclear industry 30 years ago.

“Three Mile Island was just a near miss. This is unfortunately a real catastrophe” said Tim Haig, CEO of BIOX Corp., Canada’s largest bio-diesel producer. BIOX designed and operates a facility in Hamilton, Ont., that produces 60 million litres of biodiesel fuel a year from seed oils and animal fat. A Canadian law that comes into effect in 2011 requires 10 per cent bio-diesel be blended into petroleum diesel.

That will require about 600 million litres of bio-diesel; currently, there is about 120 million litres a year produced in Canada. Haig says the industry should have no difficulty gearing up for 2011 and could do “considerably more” if mandated by government. Biodiesel is clean burning, non-toxic and biodegradable.

MRM
(disclosure: our Fund III owns shares and warrants in Biox)