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

The UK’s “illogical” use 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 made from veggie oil was even worse for the environment than fossil fuels.

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

Since 2008, the UK has actually needed fuel suppliers to add a growing proportion of sustainable products into the gas and diesel they supply. These biofuels are mainly ethanol distilled from corn and biodiesel made from rapeseed, used cooking oil and tallow.

Deep fried fuel

But research brought out for Chatham House states that reaching the 5% level indicates that UK motorists will need to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year since of the higher cost of fuel at the pump and from filling regularly as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report state that if the UK is to fulfill its obligations to EU energy targets the expense to vehicle drivers is most likely to increase to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

“It is tough to discover any excellent news,” Rob Bailey, senior research fellow at Chatham House, informed BBC News.

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

The EU biofuel requireds are also having extremely distorting effects in the market. Because utilized cooking oil is considered one of the most sustainable kinds of biodiesel, the cost for it has actually increased quickly. Rob Bailey says that towards completion of 2012 it was more pricey 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 after that offer it at earnings,”

“It is crazy however the rewards exist.”

There are also stresses that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in particular is producing more environment issues than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is put into cars the bigger the deficit created in the edible oils market. This had actually lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, typically produced on deforested land.

“Once you consider these indirect impacts, biofuels made from veggie oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the very first location,” said Rob Bailey.

“Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely illogical strategy.”

Biofuel advantages

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

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

“It has actually brought lots of benefits. It has enhanced the security of our diesel