Canada’s Clean Fuel Regulations to Be Reviewed in 2027: Official

VANCOUVER — Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) will conduct a review of the Clean Fuel Regulations (CFR) “starting sometime in 2027,” an official said this week.

“We will be reviewing the CFR as soon as we are finished with the targeted amendments,” Lorri Thompson, ECCC’s manager of CFR regulatory systems and quality assurance, stated at the second annual OPIS Canadian Carbon & Biofuels Forum. “We will be looking at updates to the regulations and setting what happens after 2030.”

The regulations have been in place for five years, with increasing requirements set to 2030, Thompson said, and ECCC will “look where we’re going for the next 10 after that.”

She described the process as “similar to what California does.”

“They’re always looking at the LCFS,” Thompson said, referring to the low carbon fuel standard. “They’re updating, they’re consulting on what should be changed.”

ECCC recently released a report for second-quarter 2005, according to Thompson, and “you’ll see Q3 and Q4 coming up shortly, within the next month or two.”

Unlike the review, the report does not implement changes. It merely provides data on the market, Thompson said, such as “here’s what’s the market doing, here are the credit prices, here’s the number of trades for this quarter.”

Still to come is a formal comment period for feedback on a targeted amendment once a proposal is published in the Canada Gazette.

“Our senior management and political management will decide which direction we’re going to take: a domestic content requirement, or a credit multiplier, or a hybrid of both,” Thompson stated. “Stay tuned. You’ll learn sometime in 2026.

“That will be followed by a 70-day comment period. We’ll update, get policy approval and publish final changes. I’m hoping by mid-2027 we’ll be done, but timing is subject to many factors and this isn’t a guarantee.”

The CFR has been as successful as hoped, according to Thompson.

“Absolutely,” she said. “It is meeting our expectations.”

Reporting by Michael Schneider, mschneider@opisnet.com; Editing by Jordan Godwin, jgodwin@opisnet.com