The government set up its consultation into the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation last week. The UK has to replace 5% of its oil use with a renewable alternative by 2010 - that's one million tonnes of diesel at current rates.
The government has moved slowly on this. Very slowly. We missed our last deadline and frankly who knows if we'll hit this one? But this is an area which needs a large amount of public debate - the government needs to be talking about this as a central part of its green agenda (if it can manage to find one), dispelling myths and challenging industry to find the solutions we need.
Some facts about biofuel use:
1. It is designed to neutralise carbon emissions in transport, because where digging up oil exudes carbon, growing plants absorb it. However you need all your processes in place to do this properly. Chucking fertlisers on said plants and then shipping them to Amsterdam for crushing all adds to the environmental cost.
2. We also need to get over our dependence on fossil fuels because a/ they'll run out and b/ it's troublesome when foreign governments own things you really need.
3. Biofuels in this country are not based on palm oil which has been a culprit in the slashing and burning of the Aazonian forests. The reason we don't use palm oil is it turns to a solid at 13 degrees C. Not for engines in a northern climate.
4. The technical issues with putting properly manufactured biofuel in engines seem to be largely resolved. You may face shorter service intervals and manufacturers warn about slight power loss, but operators running these vehicles don't seem to notice this even at 100% usage. The spec for biofuels is very high because it was designed with very high performance engines in mind, not the low down grunt of a working truck. Some biofuels manufacturers say the spec could easily be lowered without losing any power or performance. Neoprene seals have solved the dissolving engine seal issue.
4. Biofuels has a bad rap for two reasons: a. A bad mix was distrubted in Germany some years ago that haunted motorists for a long time.
b. The US commitment to Ethanol. Every US government needs the votes of the Iowa caucus, the huge band of midwest farmers who grow corn and soya. For years they have been heavily subsidised with the Ethanol pledge - where the goverment supported their producing maize for fuel depsite the fact that it was federally expensive and took more energy to grow than it produced as a fuel. Ethanol is still causing concern today (see next fact)
5. Bush has just renewed his marriage to ethanol and is trying to get Brazil in on the act. Anything which encourages wholesale rearrangement of South American farming needs to be very carefully handled becuase its ecosystem is very delicate and already under attack.
6. The grain needed to fill a 4x4 once could feed a person for a year.
And that's going to become one of the big issues in the next few years. If you think road pricing will penalise the poor wait till you see what turning food into fuel will do for the really hungry of this world. In the UK so far it's a healthy, if not fun, competition between biofuel firms and the Margarines and Spreads Association. But what if abroad it became the difference between locally grown food being eaten or sent abroad to fill rich people's petrol tanks.
Another complex debate. We do need to do something. We should hit the RTFO. And we should not be deterred as an industry from experimenting with what we can do to improve our environmental status. But we need to be responsible, careful, thoughtful in how we move to the next evolutionary platform for vehicles. The idea is to make the world better, after all.