Europe's Major Reconsideration of Biofuels
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- We've said that focusing on biofuels for
transportation is putting the cart before the
horse: it makes sense to first displace as many
miles as possible through electricity. Though
we've seen warnings for several years about "food
vs. fuel" and about how much greenhouse gases
various biofuels actually save (not to mention
the new infrastructure and technology
developments required), Europe is ahead of the
U.S. in taking a real look at the problem.
Here's a NY Times story previewing the emerging
controversy, links to a British Royal Society
study on the subject, two stories from the Wall
Street Journal, and articles from European media
in the wake of meetings on the subject by the
European Union. (The UK's Guardian story
describes divisions among environmentalists on the subject.)
January 15, 2008
Europe May Ban Imports of Some Biofuel Crops
By JAMES KANTERpes dependence on fossil fuels.
In part, that is because biofuels a blanket
term covering fuels grown from crops to
manufacture substitutes for diesel and gasoline
are seen as Europes main weapon in lowering
emissions from transportation. And transportation
has the fastest growing levels of greenhouse
gases among all sectors of Europes economy.
On Monday, in answer to a reporterspes.
Sustainable biofuels: prospects and challenges
14 Jan 2008
The Society convened a working group of leading
experts to consider the science and technology
prospects of delivering efficient biofuels for
transport in the broader context of the
environmental protection and sustainability.
The working group concluded that biofuels have a
potentially useful role in tackling the issues of
climate change and energy supply. However,
important opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions from biofuels, and to ensure wider
environmental and social benefits, may be missed
with existing policy frameworks and targets..
The report makes a series of recommendations
about policies and research needs in order to
help develop sustainable biofuels for transport
LINK TO REPORT: Sustainable biofuels: prospects
and challenges (Adobe PDF File, 788kb)
EU Is Planning Measures
To Protect Biofuels Industry
By JOHN W. MILLER in Brussels and TOM WRIGHT in Jakarta, Indonesia
Write to John W. Miller at
john.miller@... and Tom Wright at tom.wright@...
January 23, 2008; Page A11.
Europe's Biodiesel Drive Sputters
Industry's Woes Endanger EU Goal For Using Fossil-Fuel Alternatives
By JOHN W. MILLER
December 27, 2007; Page A4
BORKEN, Germany --.
The trend is at odds with conventional wisdom
that rising oil prices make green energy more
attractive. It also means the EU risks missing
the goal it set in 2003 of replacing 10% of
transportation fuel with nonfossil fuels by 2020.
The 27-nation bloc, which claims to lead the
world in cutting the carbon-dioxide emissions
believed to cause global warming, uses nonfossil
fuels for less than 2% of transportation fuel consumed.
Since January, prices for the crops that make
most biodiesel have doubled, driving the cost of
a ton of biodiesel up 50%, to around $1,440 a
ton, or about $4.80 a gallon. Prices for regular
crude-oil-based diesel have risen sharply, too,
but only to $840 a ton, or $2.80 a gallon.
Biodiesel has become more expensive for oil
companies to buy than fossil fuel, and they are cutting back..
The combination of problems has hit producers
hard. Petrotec AG, based here in Borken, Germany,
makes biodiesel out of used cooking oil from
McDonald's, Burger King and other restaurants.
After going public last year, its market
capitalization quickly climbed to 200 million
($288 million). But when the German government
canceled a biodiesel tax credit in August 2006,
Petrotec's share price halved, and the company shed workers.
"How are we meant to invent and develop new
technology if we can't make money?" asks Petrotec
Chief Executive Roger Boeing, who started the
firm in 1998. He helped pioneer a technology for
converting recycled oil into biodiesel, but it
still isn't efficient enough to make biodiesel
less expensive than normal diesel.
A prominent British company, Biofuels Corp.,
avoided a bankruptcy situation this year after
Barclays Bank agreed to swap some of its debt
outstanding for 94% of the equity in the company.
The company blamed high commodity prices and
biodiesel imports from the U.S. for its woes.
U.S. biodiesel producers enjoy a big tax credit
from the federal government. This month, Congress
voted to extend the tax credit until the end of
2010. EU producers recently asked the EU to
impose punitive tariffs on biodiesel imports from
the U.S., citing the subsidies as unfair
competition. U.S. producers dispute the claim.
"We're still working on a big technological
breakthrough to bring costs down," says Bruno
Reyntjens, a manager at Proviron, a Belgian
company that makes biodiesel out of rapeseed and soybeans.
Scientists say it is likely to be at least 2010
before any breakthrough is made on costs, or on
producing a biodiesel than can run in regular
diesel engines effectively at a much higher blend
than the current standard of 5% per gallon of diesel sold at the pump.
[chart]
Europe's governments are finding it difficult to
adjust policy to a new and volatile market. In
2006, when commodity prices were low and margins
were fat, Germany decided to trim the tax breaks
it offers to biodiesel producers. Earlier this
year, France raised taxes on biodiesel. Now that
producers are in trouble, governments aren't giving the tax breaks back.
"It's public finances versus agriculture, and
governments need money," says Kevin McGeeney,
chief executive of Switzerland-based Starsupply
Renewables SA, a biofuels broker. Ten EU
countries, including the United Kingdom, have
delayed measures to force oil companies to blend
biodiesel with their regular fuel.
The Paris-based International Energy Agency has
urged EU governments to cut back further on
incentives to develop biofuels, saying they are too expensive.
Peter Mandelson, the EU's top trade negotiator,
says the problem isn't the use of biodiesel, but
producing it in crowded, high-cost Europe.
"Europe should be open to accepting that we will
import a large part of our biofuel resources,"
Mr. Mandelson said in a speech this summer.
U.S. ethanol producers are facing some similar
problems. Buoyed by $7 billion a year in
subsidies and a tariff on foreign imports, U.S.
farmers planted a quarter more corn this year,
most of it going toward making ethanol. But
supply of ethanol is outstripping demand, mainly
because of the difficulty and cost of
transporting ethanol, which needs special
pipelines. Some U.S. ethanol producers are idling
production and a debate has begun over whether
the pressure that ethanol production puts on
agricultural land is worth the modest cuts in
carbon-dioxide emissions it yields.
To bio or not to bio - are 'green' fuels really good for the earth?
The EU says we need them, some experts say they
damage the planet. Who is right?
David Adam, environment correspondent
The Guardian, Saturday January 26 2008
*
From.
But now a chill wind is blowing through this
emerging industry. Fuels from vegetable oil,
sugar, corn and a number of other crops and
plants, collectively known as biofuels, are
taking flak. There are doubts about their carbon
savings, and concern over their impact on food
supplies, prices and the land needed to grow
them. This week, a parliamentary committee called
for a moratorium on efforts to increase their
use. Yet on Wednesday, the EU confirmed it will
force oil companies to mix biofuel into petrol
and diesel, while separate UK action on climate
change will make all suppliers use biofuels by April.
It is a confusing situation, which provoked New
Scientist to call on the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change to "determine whether
biofuels are good or bad". The issue splits even
the green campaigners: Friends of the Earth said
this week's European move was a disaster; WWF welcomed it.."
Europe January 24, 2008 (Business Week from Der Spiegel)
Criticism Mounts Against Biofuels
The EU has announced plans to increase the use of
gas and diesel produced from plants, but many say
they are even more harmful than conventional fossil fuels
by Charles Hawley
The..
'A Total Disaster'."
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Felix Kramer fkramer@...
Founder California Cars Initiative
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