In places where clean-fuel standards have had time to mature, RNG has rapidly displaced conventional natural gas in transportation. In California last year, for example, RNG supplied roughly 98 per cent of the on-road fuel used in natural gas-powered vehicles, according to analysis of California Air Resources Board data. And because many RNG pathways can achieve negative carbon intensity, the fuel is proving particularly effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

Growing RNG use is, quite simply, a winning formula for everyone.

Canada saw the success in places like California and built a similar credit-market approach. The Clean Fuel Regulations (CFR) have the right ambition and the right lifecycle-based design. But a policy is only as good as its implementation — and today, the CFR is moving at a pace that undercuts its own goals. CFR credit prices are flashing that warning signal: over the past year and a half, they have surged, even as potential suppliers sit in long, uncertain review queues. 

Every week of delay is a missed opportunity for Canada, tied directly to regulation that’s not yet performing at the speed of its own ambition. 

BioTown Biogas sits at ground zero of this challenge. We grew out of working agriculture in the farming heartland of Indiana, collecting high-methane farm, organic, and industrial waste and converting it into clean energy. Fifteen-plus years of relationships across agriculture and clean energy make our volumes reliable and predictable. So when the CFR came into effect, we saw the opportunity, invested ahead of production, and filed our application last October. 

Nine months later, our RNG is flowing into Canada — but without approval of the pathway-specific carbon intensities needed to realize its full CFR credit value. While Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) initially indicated a three-and-a-half-month approval process, we have not had so much as a substantive status update since April. That uncertainty carries real cost. With no visibility into where our file stands or when it might move, we cannot plan capital, staffing, or production with any confidence. 

BioTown Biogas is unlikely to be alone in this. For any low-emission fuel supplier, a long and uncertain approval process changes the math. When timelines are unknowable, you defer capital, reduce hiring, and discount the next project. The ongoing delay leaves emission reductions uncredited, credit supply constrained, and confidence weakened — a bill paid not by any one company, but by the Canadian people and our planet.

None of this is a call for ECCC to lower the bar. The discipline of its review is what makes a CFR credit worth holding. But rigour and pace are not enemies — and rigour does not require silence. The regulation already requires CFR applications and assumptions to be verified by an accredited, impartial third party, which leaves real scope to reduce duplicative work without weakening a single standard. 

Furthermore, a thorough review and clear status updates are not in conflict. We are asking for what any business needs to operate: predictable timelines and transparency about where our file stands. We have been ready since October. We remain ready.

Canada built the right policy. The task now is to let it deliver. Get this right, and the country will capture the full value that RNG unlocks: lower lifecycle emissions, a stronger credit market, and Clean Fuel Regulations that perform at the speed of their own ambition. The fuel is ready. The producers are ready. What is missing is a process that moves — and until it does, this winning formula will not deliver the payoff the CFR was designed to produce.

To learn more about BioTown Biogas visit https://biotownbiogas.com/ 

Chris Pino, Chief Executive Officer, BioTown Biogas

The views expressed are those of the author(s). National Newswatch Inc. publishes a range of perspectives and does not necessarily endorse the opinions presented.