Biofuels Breakthrough

Biofuels Breakthrough: "All the powers necessary for the government to introduce a Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation are now in place. The Energy Bill 2004, given Royal Assent, contains all the provisions necessary to bring in legislation which would require the oil companies to sell a given proportion of their annual fossil fuel sales as biofuels (biodiesel, bioethanol and biogas).
Peter Clery, Chairman of the British Association for Biofuels and Oils (BABFO), said he was delighted with this development. 'The House of Lords has proved its worth' he said, as the initial work was done in the Lords by Rt Hon the Lord Carter, vice chairman of BABFO, Lord Palmer, BABFO president and accepted on behalf of the Government by Lord Whitty, Minister for Sustainable Energy.
The job now, said Mr Clery, is to get the detail right so that British producers can get a fair crack of the whip in providing the feedstocks to help fuel the nation's transport. Only fuels, which make a positive environmental contribution, should be allowed to qualify, he said.
Editor's Notes.
At present only some 25,000 tones of biodiesel are being produced in the UK and about half of this is imported. There is no bioethanol produced as a road fuel in the UK.
EU Directive 2003/30/EU has set the target of 2% biofuel usage by end 2005 and 5.75% by end 2010. For the UK, the first target would mean about 800,000 tonnes of biofuel. This could only be met by massive imports, as past Government support (a fuel duty rebate of 20p/litre) is not sufficient to make biofuel production profitable.
However with the fuel duty rebate and a Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation the 2010 target could be met and from homegrown feedstocks. Something over 2 million tonnes would be required. 1 million tonnes of biodiesel could come from land currently idle under the discredi"