OTTAWA -- The Harper government is taking a harder look at an industry that has been a political and policy darling amid soaring fuel prices and fretting about greenhouse gases.
A study has been ordered into the environmental and health effects of producing ethanol and biodiesel.
A government contract document says "there is now evidence of implications to the environment from biofuels-based ethanol production facilities."
The study comes after other countries apparently found facilities that make renewable fuels could be behind a host of health and environmental problems.
The contract document notes that "Experiences in the U.S. and Brazil now suggest that existing biofuels production facilities are responsible for the generation of a range of new air- and water-related problems as well as recent concerns over human health."
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Environment Canada is now looking for a firm to come up with environmental benchmarks for biofuel production, and a report is due by the end of March.
