Administrative amendment to Technical Guideline: Cleaner Transportation Fuels

ERO number
019-3082
Notice type
Bulletin
Act
Environmental Protection Act, R.S.O. 1990
Posted by
Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks
Bulletin posted
Last updated

This notice is for informational purposes only. There is no requirement to consult on this initiative on the Environmental Registry of Ontario. Learn more about the types of notices on the registry.

Bulletin summary

We are updating the Technical Guideline: Cleaner Transportation Fuels (ministry guideline) under the Cleaner Transportation Fuels regulation. These are administrative updates to the previous version of the ministry guideline with respect to greenhouse gas performance values used in compliance calculations.

Why consultation isn't required

We are posting this information note on the Environmental Registry to advise the public of updates to the technical guidelines for cleaner transportation fuels and to establish the current version of the guideline (ministry guideline 1.1) as required under section 177(6) of the Environmental Protection Act.

The amendments to the technical guideline are administrative in nature. The Environmental Bill of Rights does not require this notice to be posted on the Environmental Registry for consultations. Public consultation on the regulation (under ERO-013-4598) occurred over a 45-day period between February 12, 2019 to March 29, 2019 and on the previous version of the technical guideline (under ERO-019-1030) over a 30-day period between December 16, 2019 to January 15, 2020. The ministry also held consultations and meetings with stakeholders during the consultation periods.

Bulletin details

The Ontario government is making gasoline that drivers use everyday cleaner by becoming the first province to require fuel suppliers to increase the amount of renewable content in regular-grade gasoline to 15 per cent.

Our new Cleaner Transportation Fuels regulation requires fuel suppliers to increase blending of renewable content in gasoline to 11 per cent in 2025, 13 per cent in 2028, and 15 per cent in 2030, which will result in an annual reduction of up to one megatonne of greenhouse gas emissions – the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars off the road every year

To support this new regulation, we released our Technical Guideline: Cleaner Transportation Fuels (ministry guideline) on November 25, 2020 (ERO-019-1030). This posting makes administrative updates in this guideline and replaces the guideline with an updated version (ministry guideline 1.1)

Background

Ontario Regulation 663/20 - Cleaner Transportation Fuels

On November 25, 2020, O. Reg. 535/05 (Greener Gasoline – Bio-based Content Requirements for Gasoline) and O. Reg. 97/14 (Greener Diesel – Renewable Fuel Content Requirements for Petroleum Diesel Fuel) were revoked and a single regulation, O. Reg. 663/20 (Cleaner Transportation Fuels - Renewable Content Requirements for Petroleum Gasoline and Diesel Fuels) was filed to replace those regulations. Ontario’s Cleaner Transportation Fuels regulation maintains separate renewable content requirements for gasoline and diesel (Registry number ERO-013-4598).

Technical guideline

To support O. Reg. 663/20 (Cleaner Transportation Fuels - Renewable Content Requirements for Petroleum Gasoline and Diesel Fuels), the Technical Guideline: Cleaner Transportation Fuels (ministry guideline) was issued and incorporated by reference in the regulation.

The ministry guideline updates and provides guidance on technical requirements that were in the former Greener Gasoline and Greener Diesel regulations. For example, gasoline and diesel GHG intensity values and the GHG reduction requirement in grams of CO2e/MJ that were included in the previous regulations are now in this new ministry guideline.

The ministry guideline also includes a process for fuel suppliers to make requests to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks for instructions on how to calculate the greenhouse gas intensity of emerging renewable fuel technologies that are not otherwise listed.

Requiring fuel suppliers to comply with updated technical guidance ensures that the regulated community uses consistent methods and measurable data to calculate the greenhouse gas performance of the renewable content in the fuel they sell.

Alignment of guideline with regulation

All updates align with the regulation and technical guideline for which consultations were previously conducted. Where the regulation requires certain information to be provided in accordance with the guideline, that information is set out within Technical Guideline – Cleaner Transportation Fuels version 1.1 (ministry guideline 1.1).

Administrative updates

We’ve made administrative updates to Section 4, Part B: Compliance Equation Value (page 22), under the following sections with the updates noted below:

  • 4.2 GHG Intensity Reduction Requirement of Bio-Based Content:
    • the value for letter z (diesel) in s.1 of Schedule 1, is updated to 64.3 gCO2e/MJ (was 27.6 gCO2e/MJ); and
    • the year range for the value for letter z (gasoline) in s.2 of Schedule 1, is updated to 2020 to 2029 (was 2025 to 2029).

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