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

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

The UK’s “irrational” usage of biofuels will cost vehicle drivers 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 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 make up 5% of the fuel from today.

Since 2008, the UK has actually required fuel suppliers to include a growing proportion of sustainable products into the fuel and diesel they supply. These biofuels are generally ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, utilized cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research carried out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level indicates that UK vehicle drivers will have to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that 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 satisfy its obligations to EU energy targets the cost to vehicle drivers is likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

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

“Biofuels increase expenses and they are a very expensive way to decrease carbon emissions,” he said.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting results in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered as one of the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the cost for it has actually increased quickly. Rob Bailey states that towards completion of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

“It develops a financial reward to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and after that sell it at earnings,”

“It is insane but the rewards exist.”

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

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

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

Biofuel advantages

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external throughout the EU, stated it knew the problems brought on by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have many positives.

“Blaming biofuels for all the problems on the planet is a bit too overstated,” said Isabelle Maurizi, task supervisor at the EBB.

“It has actually brought great deals of advantages. It has actually improved the security of our diesel; it has decreased EU reliance 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 hits the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the federal government deals with some tough decisions on how to move forward on this problem as it deals with tripling the costs for drivers by 2020.

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

“When you have a lobby which consists of the farming sector and the oil sector it is really difficult for Governments to make a U-turn,” said Rob Bailey.

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