Minister: Malaysia’s B5 mandate too costly

Malaysia’s Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok plans to propose the sale of biodiesel with less palm oil content to reduce government spending for the biodiesel B5 mandate.  “I’ll be proposing to the Cabinet to bring down the B5 mandate to B3 or B2. The B5 mandate, if it were to be fully implemented, would cost around 240 million (US$71.27 million) to 250 million ringgit (US$74.24 million). This is a problem because ordinary diesel is already being subsidized by the government,” said Dompok. Under the mandate, the Malaysian government has set a January 2010 deadline to sell B5, a 5% biodiesel blend. (October 23, 2009)