Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I am not aware of the statement by Al Gore, but I will certainly make inquiries and come back to the member about that. In terms of biofuels more generally, the Howard government have consistently supported a commercially viable biofuels industry as a means of diversifying our fuel mix. We have backed that with more than $80 million in ethanol production grants, more than $37 million in biofuels capital grants, a commitment to ensure ethanol remains effectively excise free until 2011 and the $17.2 million Ethanol Distribution Program, which encourages petrol stations to install new pumps or convert existing pumps to sell E10 blended fuel. That investment is paying off. Production of transport ethanol grew from 28 million litres in 2005 to nearly 63 million litres last year.

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