Another example, this time from Reuters, of a country forging ahead with clean-fuel legislation that includes biodiesel:
The Philippines’ biofuels law came into effect on Sunday with little fanfare or information and only a partial rollout of the much-vaunted 1 percent coconut blend diesel.
Motorists were surprised to hear use of the cleaner fuel was now mandatory.
The government seems to have confidence in the ability of the private industry to handle the education of consumers, once the laws have corrected the market forces back to a more neutral position and less dominated by petroleum-based interests.
Chemrez, the largest bio-diesel producer in the country, has some interesting data on their site:
The firm’s premium coco-bio-diesel brand, BioActiv, has been tested in various government and public laboratories worldwide and has been found compliant with accepted national and international standards for bio-diesel.
ChemrezTech’s successful completion and passing of the IMS certification requirements consolidated three aspects of manufacturing excellence– adherence to global quality standards, complying with environmental laws, regulations, and promotion of a safe and healthy working environment.
ChemrezTech is the first bio-diesel plant to get all three certifications and within the shortest time for all IMS-certified firms.
It should not take long for results, including new market opportunities, to come to fruition. I suppose many people had no idea how they could improve things on their own but now they see a better path ahead, as the Reuters article points out:
Motorists said they would be willing to shell out extra if it meant less pollution.
“If it will serve the environment, why not?” said Jimmy Gochang, 70. “The air here is really terrible.”
Shell out extra? Funny. Not only will prices decrease, given the ubiquity of natural oils (the Philippines can also produce diesel fuel from sugar, jathropa, palm oil, soybeans and fishing industries), but local and global competition for transportation fuels are already fundamentally altered. For example, Chemrez benefits from the largest supply of coconut oil in the world as it now exports their diesel fuel to Germany.