Mr. Eugene Drennan:

On the torque of the alternative fuels and the torque of electric in pulling a tractor, there is no torque. Electrical batteries for the bigger vehicles have been produced. I am thinking in particular of Tesla in America. Millions upon millions have been invested in it. They have developed the battery and they have developed a truck that can go but it cannot bring the weight. They have not got the torque. They have not got the structure to keep it charged within the country. The distances cannot be covered. That would be similar to us going to far-flung places in Europe. We will not do it. I will bring Mr. Jackman in on the technology side of it.

I keep referencing being an island nation. The reason we refer to that is that although gas may be used in tractors here and may work, the exhaust of gas is the same as the Euro 6 emission level. On top of that, on an island we must think about shipping. We cannot put a range of battery trucks on a ship because the toxicity alone if one went on fire would kill the passengers. You cannot put out a battery fire on a ship; you have to sink the ship. It has to be submerged. With hydrogen, likewise, the development of the hydrogen from the oxygen costs a lot of money - Mr. Jackman will go into that - and that is not here yet. The amount of it we would need, with the bigger tanks and the infrastructure of travelling with hydrogen, makes it difficult. Plus, with the bigger vehicles, the leakage of hydrogen is higher. They tell you that it is easier to put out the fire, but what if you see ten hydrogen trucks in a row and one of them goes up? There would be a big security risk for the safety of the people on board and for the ship itself. Coming and going to and from an island, there is a challenge because the inert nature of diesel is so much safer.

There is a new buzz going around that we might develop synthetic fuels. The cost of that is very high - Mr. Jackman will tell the committee about that - and they are not available yet either. On the HVO suggestion, we are mindful of the needs of farmers. What we suggested would be a rotational crop. It provides natural nitrogen for the soil, I believe, in its growth. Mr. Jackman or Mr. Nolan will fill the Deputy in on the technicality of what HVO is, and on synthetic fuels.