Biofuels: 'Irrational' and 'worse than nonrenewable fuel sources'

The UK's "unreasonable" 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 says the growing reliance on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food rates.

The author states that biodiesel made from vegetable 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 providers to include a growing proportion of sustainable products into the petrol and diesel they provide. 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 the 5% level means that UK motorists will need to pay an extra ₤ 460m a year due to the fact that of the greater cost of fuel at the pump and from filling regularly as biofuels have a lower energy material.

The report say that if the UK is to satisfy its responsibilities to EU energy targets the expense to vehicle drivers is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per year by 2020.

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

"Biofuels increase costs and they are a very costly way to reduce carbon emissions," he stated.

The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting results in the marketplace. Because utilized cooking oil is considered among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the rate for it has actually increased rapidly. Rob Bailey says that towards the end of 2012 it was more expensive than refined palm oil.

"It produces a monetary incentive to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into used cooking oil and after that offer it at revenue,"

"It is insane but the rewards are there."

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

"Once you take into consideration these indirect results, biofuels made from veggie oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would receive from using diesel in the first place," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking motorists to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a totally unreasonable method."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, stated it was mindful of the issues caused by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have numerous positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the troubles in the world is a bit too exaggerated," said Isabelle Maurizi, task manager at the EBB.

"It has actually brought lots of benefits. It has enhanced the security of our diesel; it has actually reduced 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 faces some hard choices on how to progress on this problem as it faces tripling the expenses for motorists by 2020.

Insiders recommend its choice would be to attempt and get arrangement in Brussels on the effects of indirect expenses which might constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting contract from countries with effective agricultural sectors who take advantage of the existing arrangement will be challenging.

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

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