NSW Liberal Leader Peter Debnam today welcomed the initiative of the Australian Government to ask the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to monitor the pricing of ethanol-blended fuel.
Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile announced over the weekend the ACCC would extend its monitoring of petrol prices to include E10.
"As Mr Vaile noted, E10 should be up to 4 cents a litre cheaper than regular unleaded because domestically-produced ethanol receives a Federal Government subsidy," Mr Debnam said, who recently converted his car to run on E85 fuel.
ReplyDelete"If elected in March 2007, the NSW Liberal/Nationals will be seeking a dramatic increase in ethanol production and use as part of the state's fuel mix," he said.
"NSW Nationals Leader Andrew Stoner and I convened an ethanol roundtable last week as the first plank in the formation of our biofuels policy.
"Greater use of ethanol-blended fuel and biodiesel would provide a more secure income for our farmers, decrease our reliance on imported petroleum products, result in lower fuel prices for motorists, create jobs in regional areas and reduce cancer-causing pollution," Mr Debnam said.
Mr Debnam and Mr Stoner will convene another roundtable next month to consider the following policy initiatives:
• Incentives to increase ethanol and biofuel production
o Incentives for production facilities
• Incentives to increase ethanol distribution
o Incentives for cleaning storage tanks
o Incentives for cost of conversion to ethanol
o Incentives for blending and distribution facilities
o Target of service stations with the capacity to supply E85 by 2010
• Incentives to increase demand for ethanol
o Mandate E10
o Incentives to use/convert to E10
o Incentives to use/convert to E15
o Incentives to convert to E85
o Motor vehicle registration concessions
• Promotion of ethanol
o Appoint and ethanol ambassador
o Marketing campaign