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

The UK's "irrational" usage 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 dependence on sustainable liquid fuels will also increase food rates.

The author says that biodiesel made from grease was even worse for the environment than fossil fuels.

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

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

Deep fried fuel

But research performed for Chatham House says that reaching the 5% level implies that UK vehicle drivers will have to pay an additional ₤ 460m a year because of the greater cost of fuel at the pump and from filling up regularly as biofuels have a lower energy content.

The report say that if the UK is to satisfy its commitments to EU energy targets the cost to motorists is likely to rise to ₤ 1.3 bn per annum by 2020.

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

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

The EU biofuel mandates are also having extremely distorting impacts in the marketplace. Because used cooking oil is related to as among the most sustainable types of biodiesel, the cost for it has actually risen rapidly. Rob Bailey states that towards the end of 2012 it was more costly than refined palm oil.

"It develops a monetary reward to purchase refined palm oil, cook a chip in it to turn it into utilized cooking oil and then offer it at profit,"

"It is insane however the incentives are there."

There are also worries that taking EU land out of production to grow rapeseed oil in specific is creating more environment problems than it resolves. The more fuel of this type that is taken into cars the bigger the deficit developed in the edible oils market. This had lead to increased imports of palm oil from Indonesia, often produced on deforested land.

"Once you consider these indirect results, biofuels made from veggie oils in fact result worldwide in more emissions than you would get from using diesel in the first location," stated Rob Bailey.

"Plus you are asking drivers to pay more for the fuel - it makes no sense, it is a completely unreasonable technique."

Biofuel benefits

The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which represents the market, external throughout the EU, stated it understood the problems triggered by the mandate. But it believes that biofuels have many positives.

"Blaming biofuels for all the difficulties worldwide is a bit too overstated," stated Isabelle Maurizi, task supervisor at the EBB.

"It has brought lots of benefits. It has enhanced the security of our diesel; it has actually minimized 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 strikes the 5% of liquid fuels mark, the government faces some challenging decisions on how to progress on this concern as it deals with tripling the costs for motorists by 2020.

Insiders suggest its preference would be to try and get agreement in Brussels on the effects of indirect costs which may constrain what counts as biofuel. However getting arrangement from nations with effective agricultural sectors who gain from the present plan will be challenging.

"When you have a lobby that includes the agricultural sector and the oil sector it is extremely difficult for Governments to make a U-turn," said Rob Bailey.

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