Association: Canadian Renewable Fuels Association

Founded in 1984, the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association (CRFA) is a non-profit organization with a mission to promote renewable fuels for transportation through improved consumer awareness and government liaison activities.
The CRFA welcomes members from all corners of the renewable fuels industry, including grain and cellulose ethanol producers, biodiesel producers, pyrolasic oil, fuel technology providers, and agricultural associations. It offers membership at the full, associate and supporting levels.
The role of the CRFA has evolved and expanded in recent years as renewable fuels have established a higher profile in the political and policy arenas - and greater awareness and usage among the general public.

The association has played a critical role of informing Canadians of the environmental and economic advantages of renewable fuels and the financial and societal benefits of beginning to move beyond oil.

On the environmental side, the adoption of a Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) in Canada - mandating 5 percent renewable fuels in the gasoline supply by 2010 and 2 percent renewable diesel by 2011 - will result in a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions: the equivalent of removing one million cars from the road.

According to the International Energy Agency, grain ethanol enjoys a 55 percent advantage over traditional gasoline when it comes to GHG emissions. Similarly, the energy balance for ethanol was determined to far outpace those of fossil fuels. This advantage will only expand as oil becomes more difficult to find and extract, and as the next-generation of renewable fuels - made from switchgrass, forestry and wood residue and other organic material - becomes commercially viable.

On the economic side, the RFS is helping to ensure that thousands of green, 21st Century jobs are being created as more than $2 billion is being invested in new biofuels plants across the country - much of it in rural Canada, where economic opportunity is needed most.
At the same time, the growth of renewable fuels is good news for Canadian farmers, who have new and reliable markets and increased demand for their grains and oilseeds. Rural communities stand to gain from rising farm incomes and major investments in infrastructure. That could help reduce government support payments by making more of our farms more financially viable.
More broadly, renewable fuels production adds clean, new fuel to Canada's energy supply, helps reduce the price we pay at the pump and increases our home-grown sources of energy.

PARTICIPATING IN THE BIO-REVOLUTION

The CRFA advances the interests of its members by serving as a source of factually-reliable information for members of the media, government and other interested parties. It promotes policy initiatives advantageous to renewable fuels development and usage, and represents the interests of its members before government hearings, commissions and committees. Leadership by key decision-makers is critical to the success of the Canadian biofuels industry.

The CRFA also organizes seminars and information meetings in venues large and small all across our country. And, it helps keep its members abreast of new technological developments on renewable fuels at Canadian and foreign universities, private research institutions and allied associations.
At the Canadian Renewable Fuels Association, we believe we are in the infancy of a transformation - a bio-revolution that will be every bit as far-reaching as the information revolution of the 1980s. Increasingly, our energy will come from what we grow and harvest on the earth instead of what we find and extract from it.

The story of the Canadian renewable fuels industry is and will continue to be a story of economic growth and environmental responsibility - a story of Canada taking a leadership role as the world begins to move away from traditional fossil fuels and move towards the clean-burning, renewable and sustainable energy solutions of tomorrow. It is, above all else, a story of how Canada is growing beyond oil.
It's a story the CRFA is proud and eager to tell.

www.greenfuels.org