Australia: NSW Legislation to Replace Unleaded With Ethanol Blends

The State Cabinet voted to legislate mandatory ethanol use for the first time in Australia, taking a stick to major players in the industry who have refused to co-operate with what was a weakly enforced mandate. They plan to completely phase out regular unleaded within three years and replace it with the 10 per cent ethanol blend known as E10.

The local Government will also mandate 2 per cent bio-diesel for all diesel sold, creating an entirely new local industry for NSW. It is estimated the E10 policy will reduce total greenhouse emissions by around 2 per cent - or the equivalent of taking 77,000 cars and 1900 buses and trucks off the road.

An estimated 900 new jobs are expected to be created in regional and rural NSW from the expansion of independent ethanol producers. The mandatory ethanol policy was an election promise of the Iemma Government in 2007.

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