Biofuels: ‘Irrational’ and ‘Worse than Fossil Fuels’

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

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

A report by Chatham House, external states the growing dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food rates.

The author says that biodiesel made from vegetable oil was even worse for the than fossil fuels.

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel providers to include a growing percentage of sustainable materials into the fuel and diesel they provide. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research brought out for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level means that UK vehicle drivers will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling more frequently as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report say that if the UK is to meet its obligations to EU energy targets the cost to vehicle drivers is most likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum 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 an extremely pricey way to decrease carbon emissions,” he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having hugely distorting results in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as one of the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has risen rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

“It develops a monetary incentive to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and then sell it at earnings,”

“It is insane but the incentives are there.”

There are also frets that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is developing more climate issues than it solves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the larger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

“Once you take into account these indirect impacts, biofuels made from veggie oils really result worldwide in more emissions than you would obtain from using diesel in the first place,” stated Rob Bailey.

“Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel – it makes no sense, it is an entirely illogical technique.”

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, said it understood the problems brought on by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have many positives.

“Blaming biofuels for all the troubles worldwide is a bit too overstated,” stated Isabelle Maurizi, project manager at the EBB.

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

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

As the UK hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government deals with some challenging decisions on how to move forward on this concern as it faces tripling the costs for drivers by 2020.

Insiders suggest its choice would be to try and get agreement in Brussels on the impacts of indirect expenses which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from nations with powerful agricultural sectors who gain from the current arrangement will be challenging.

“When you have a lobby that includes the farming sector and the oil sector it is very difficult for Governments to make a U-turn,” said Rob Bailey.

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