Tuesday 1 April 2008

'Splash 'n Dash'


It sounds like an April fool joke but more problems are reported with biofuels (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/01/biofuels.energy) thanks to a perfectly legal US scheme. Apparently, biodiesel can be shipped from Europe to the US, a 'splash' of US fuel added (this can be from 'regular' petroleum) and the whole lot shipped back to Europe (it is apparently called the 'U boat trade' because of the shape of the ship's courses). This, of course, greatly adds to the energetic costs of transport. What do the American importers/exporters get out of this? They reportedly can claim up to 11p per litre in US subsidies from the US government for the whole cargo and then can sell it back to the Europeans, greatly under-cutting the price of locally sold biofuels. It is estimated that around 10% of the 1m tonnes biodiesel imported from America to Europe results from this trade. Some of it may well be added to our petrol and diesel to provide the 2.5% of non-petrochemical derived fuel required by new EU 'green' regulations. It does seem very difficult to stop this kind of lunacy, as business seems prepared to make a fast buck under all circumstances and politicians seem very poor at determining the full consequences of their regulations.

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