ERMA allows 10% ethanol blends

New Zealand’s Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) has decided to remove a financial barrier to the introduction of ethanol blends, by allowing petrol blends containing up to 10% ethanol in single-skinned underground tanks, says New Zealand’s Minister of Energy David Parker. The government in February announced a phased introduction of biofuels from 2008, which would require 3.4% of the total fuel sold by oil companies to be biofuels by 2012. Today’s decision to allow these ethanol blends to be stored in single instead of double-skinned tanks removes a major financial and practical barrier to their introduction,” Parker said. (May 16, 2007)