Our cars could be run on fuel produced from this oil seed rape crop
So why is the UK lagging behind? Why can’t we be world leaders when it comes to environmental issues and other countries learn from us, instead of the other way round?
Unfortunately, we have taken an even further backward step following the collapse of a pioneering biodiesel Global Commodities company in East Anglia – with government bureaucracy to blame. Chairman Dennis Thouless blames excessive regulation for crippling production.
He said; “This was the first biodiesel plant in the United Kingdom, this was a research and development unit, we had permission to trade 24/7 from Breckland Council. However, the bureaucrats at the Environment Agency would only allow us to manufacture between 8am and 6pm.”
The business also suffered a major setback when it was fined almost £30,000 by the EA for causing pollution and breaking their operating regulations.
At 72, his dream has been shattered, and it is too late for him to benefit from the 2.4 billion euro research funding announced today by the EU into renewable energy.
Morrisons is stocking this green fuel in our supermarkets, which is a start, but we need our political leaders to demonstrate their support by insisting it power our government vehicles too.
One major setback, according to my MEP Robert Sturdy, is that although our cars are capable of running on a combined renewable fuel containing a percentage of ethanol, it validates their car warrenty, so car manufacturers need to make it acceptable. Petrol costs 70% more at the pumps in Brazil than biofuels, a major incentive. The government here also needs to give enhanced tax incentives on biofuels to show its support.
NFU president Peter Kendall is today quoted urging David Milliband to seize the opportunity to champion green fuel production, but I don’t see any mention of this on the Environment Secretary’s weblog, I even did a search to make sure I hadn’t missed it. This was an area that East Anglia felt proud to pioneer and was of great significance to local farmers.
It seems you don’t need to be a Domestic Goddess and can even make your own ethanol, why not give it a go. Let’s try and make the score Brazil 1 – 1 England!
And apart from anything else, it would mean that OPEC could no longer hold us to ransom the next time it throws a hissy fit.
I agree, we need to be independent of any threats or world shortages regarding oil
Didnt think that biofuels where all that green really – the nitrogen they use to fertilise the crop has to come from somewhere. The future is blue green algae http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_culture
No geoff the future is GM. Only when we give plant scientists the freedom to use all the tools at their disposal, will we truly unlock the potential of plants to help solve our environmental problems. And while I think about it…here’s a tremendous amount of work going on in UK Universities and Institute aimed at addressing the nitrogen problem. GM could move this research to application so much faster than conventional routes. And despite what you may have heard- it’s not intrinsically harmful!!
anonymous – Didnt think that GM could tackle the basic inefficiency of the sunlight > Chlorophyll reaction. Also fixing Nitrogen surely has to always consume a lot of energy? Wherehas algae, I thought, removed both of these obstacles.