BIOFUELS

I’m not a great fan of biofuels – I worried that a massive switch to fuels from crops could be absolutely horrendous, even in relation to climate change.

 

I should point out that my concerns relate to bioethanol (which is made from starchy crops) and biodiesel, (which is made from oily crops) but not biogas (which is gas produced from rotting materials).

 

If we wanted to grow enough fuel to power all the transport in the UK, we’d need to plant every single inch of the country with crops. Or to get an American perspective, if all the corn grown in American was used for biofuels it would supply less than 4% of the fuel for cars and trucks on their roads.

 

There’s simply not enough land to grow what we need. And even worse, many crops used for fuel are being grown on land that has been cleared of rainforest or other precious habitats.

 

Despite these problems – and others - there’s a huge surge of interest in biofuels and they’re being promoted as environmentally-friendly. One of the reasons for this is they offer an alternative to oil, much of which comes from pretty tricky sources. Energy security, not eco-security is what’s driving the government’s support of biofuels – I think we should steer clear.