Following on from the UK transport fuel price row, John Prescott
announced £69m over the next three years towards the promotion of
greener and cleaner vehicle fuels. Some £30m had in fact already been
allocated in the Comprehensive Spending Review last year- for the
‘Powershift’ project. Another £30m will go to expand the
Cleaner Vehicles Programme, set up last year to tackle pollution from
urban vehicles, and so far focussed on buses and taxis. The remaining
£9m is set to be used towards supporting technologies such as fuel
cells and hybrid vehicles. See our report later.
The DETR also launched its Rural White Paper, which includes
an increased allocation of £500m p.a. to stimulate new rural enterprises,
and ideas for farm diversification- such as to energy crops. We’ll
be looking at this in Renew 132. Meanwhile, see the DETR white paper
at:http://www.wildlife-countryside.detr.gov.uk/ruralwp/index.htm
Interestingly, the DETR does not mention biodiesel in either of these
announcements, despite it being an obvious option for farmers, although
it will be a contender in the Green Fuel Challenge announced
by the Treasury in Nov- with the winners getting reduced excise duty.
Biodiesel could certainly do with that- it’s currently taxed
the same as other fuels, but in many other parts of the EU it gets
special concessions. We’ll look at the case for biodiesel in
Renew 131.
