Britain Sees US Imports as Threat to UK Biofuels
UK: March 30, 2007
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/41172/story.htm
LONDON - Britain is looking for a way to tackle imports of biofuels
from the United States which it believes will undermine the commercial
case for European production, UK transport minister Stephen Ladyman
said. "People who are being subsidised to produce renewable fuels in
the United States are now planning to export that fuel to Europe where
they hope to get a second subsidy when it is sold in Europe," he said.
"That is undermining the commercial case for investment in Europe. It
is one of the things that we have got to try and sort out," he told a
conference organised by biofuels industry lobby group, the
Environmental Industries Commission.
The United States has seen rapid growth in its bioethanol industry,
boosted by strong goverment support motivated by a desire for energy
security.
European biodiesel makers have made the same complaint to Brussels --
that increasing sales of US biodiesel are being made in the EU with
the help of unfair subsidies.
Britain offers tax incentives for motor fuels which contain biofuels
as part of its effort to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases
which are believed to contribute to global warming. The incentive is
provided to both domestically produced and imported biofuels.
Bioethanol, which is usually blended with petrol, can be made from
grains or sugar crops. The US and Brazil are the world's two leading
producers of bioethanol.
Britain currently has no significant bioethanol plants although many
are planned. It currently imports much of its bioethanol from Brazil.
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
"Civilization is the interval between Ice Ages." -- Will Durant.
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
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