The government’s controversial policy on biofuel use has come in for scathing criticism in a report this week from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.
Government departments had failed to establish common ground on the main reason for using biofuels, stated committee chairman David Curry MP.
“What is the purpose of supporting biofuels,” he asked. “Is it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or support domestic farmers who grow the biofuels and processors. If it is the former, then importing ‘feedstocks’ or biofuel may make economic sense. If it is the latter then support directed at the sector may be required.”
The committee said that current government biofuels policy “as far as it had one” was “muddled and unfocused”.
“Different government departments disagree about the main reason for increasing the use of biofuels and about what level of government support is necessary,” it concluded.
The committee stated that it also “deplored” the fact that a single department had not been chosen to take biofuels policy forward and that this was one reason for the slow progress in the area.
“DEFRA, as the deparment with overall responsibility for sustainable development, needs to clarifiy the goals of the government’s biofuels policy,” it said.
Last month the UK Wood Panel Industries Federation (WPIF) protested that subsidies to encourage power stations to switch to biofuel threatened to undermine wood panel manufacturing. The organisation said the government cash would enable power stations to pay more for timber co-products and wood “waste” from forestry and price wood panel businesses out of the market (TTJ November 1/8 and ttjonline.com November 1).
The WPIF asked energy minister Stephen Timms during a meeting on October 23 to review plans to extend the subsidies. Currently they are designed to encourage power companies to use some biomass. The proposal is that they should increase to enable a 100% switch from fossil fuel.
