Biofuels: ‘Irrational’ and ‘even Worse than Nonrenewable Fuel Source’

Biofuels: ‘Irrational’ and ‘even worse than nonrenewable fuel sources’

The UK’s “irrational” use of biofuels will cost motorists around ₤ 460 million over the next 12 months, a think tank says.

A report by Chatham House, external says the growing dependence on fuels will also increase food prices.

The author says that biodiesel made from grease was worse for the environment than nonrenewable fuel sources.

Under EU law, external, biofuels are set to comprise 5% of the UK’s transport fuel from today.

Since 2008, the UK has needed fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable materials into the petrol and diesel they provide. These biofuels are primarily ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research brought out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level suggests that UK vehicle drivers will need to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year because of the greater expense of fuel at the pump and from filling up regularly as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report state that if the UK is to meet its commitments to EU energy targets the cost to vehicle drivers is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

“It is difficult to find any good news,” Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, told BBC News.

“Biofuels increase costs and they are a really costly method to lower carbon emissions,” he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having hugely distorting effects in the marketplace. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as one of the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the price for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

“It produces a financial incentive to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then offer it at profit,”

“It is insane however the incentives exist.”

There are likewise stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is producing more environment problems than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars the bigger the deficit produced in the edible oils market. This had caused increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

“Once you take into consideration these indirect results, biofuels made from veggie oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from using diesel in the first location,” stated Rob Bailey.

“Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel – it makes no sense, it is a totally illogical technique.”

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, stated it knew the issues caused by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have many positives.

“Blaming biofuels for all the problems worldwide is a bit too exaggerated,” said Isabelle Maurizi, project supervisor at the EBB.

“It has brought lots of benefits. It has actually improved the security of our diesel; it has actually minimized EU dependency on animal feed imports, thanks to the rapeseed we grow for biodiesel.”

“If there was no biodiesel farmers would just make their land idle – no food, no feed!”

As the UK strikes the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the government faces some difficult decisions on how to move forward on this problem as it faces tripling the expenses for drivers by 2020.

Insiders recommend its preference would be to try and get agreement in Brussels on the effects of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from nations with powerful agricultural sectors who take advantage of the existing arrangement will be tough.

“When you have a lobby which consists of the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is very tough for Governments to make a U-turn,” stated Rob Bailey.

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