Biofuels: Irrational And even Worse Than Nonrenewable Fuel Source

Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'even worse than fossil fuels'


The UK's "illogical" usage 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 reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also costs.


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 UK's transport fuel from today.


Since 2008, the UK has needed fuel suppliers to add a growing percentage of sustainable products into the gas 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 motorists will need to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up regularly as biofuels have a lower energy material.


The report state that if the UK is to meet its responsibilities to EU energy targets the cost to motorists is most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.


"It is difficult to find any good news," Rob Bailey, senior research study fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.


"Biofuels increase costs and they are a very costly method to lower 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 risen quickly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.


"It creates a financial incentive to buy refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and after that sell it at earnings,"


"It is crazy however the incentives are there."


There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is creating more climate issues than it fixes. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars and trucks the larger 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 effects, biofuels made from vegetable oils actually result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from utilizing diesel in the very first place," said Rob Bailey.


"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is an entirely illogical method."


Biofuel benefits


The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the industry, external throughout the EU, said it was conscious of the problems brought on by the required. But it thinks that biofuels have numerous positives.


"Blaming biofuels for all the problems in the world is a bit too overstated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task supervisor at the EBB.


"It has brought lots of benefits. It has actually improved the security of our diesel; it has actually reduced 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 federal government faces some difficult choices on how to move on on this concern as it faces tripling the expenses for vehicle drivers by 2020.


Insiders suggest its choice would be to attempt and get contract in Brussels on the impacts of indirect costs which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting arrangement from countries with effective farming sectors who benefit from the present arrangement will be hard.


"When you have a lobby that includes the farming sector and the oil sector it is really hard for Governments to make a U-turn," stated Rob Bailey.


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