The New Zealand Parliament recently passed a Biofuels Bill which is seen to “stimulate the market for alternative transport fuels” in the country. Under the legislation, oil companies are bound by a “biofuel sales obligation” which requires them to have 0.5% of their sales to be from biofuel sales. The obligation will increase in 0.5% increments up to 2.5% by 2012. “Sustainability principles” are embedded in the legislation which will ensure that the biofuels sold under the obligation will (1) emit less greenhouse gases “over their life cycles” relative to fossil fuels, (2) does not have negative impacts on food production, and (3) does not adversely affect indigenous biodiversity and lands with “high conservation value”. The legislation also allows an increasing proportion of locally produced biofuels to come from by-product sources (such as those from the dairy or beef industry), as well as from sustainable sources (i.e., fast growing trees and grasses grown on marginal land, and algae from cultivated sewage ponds)..