Brown’s green support

May 6 2008 Evening Gazette

MINISTER for the North-east Nick Brown says home-grown biofuels are a vital wealth-generator for the local and national economy.

Becoming the latest supporter of the Evening Gazette’s Back Our Biofuels campaign, he called for “major investment” in the industry, adding biofuel production could provide alternative revenue streams for local farmers.

He said: “I am an enthusiastic supporter of a UK biofuels programme. There is enough land available and biofuels can also be produced efficiently from non-food crops.”

The Gazette campaign is ramping up pressure on the European Commission and British government to tackle heavily discounted US subsidies and encourage more home-grown biofuel production.

Conservative MEP for the North-east, Martin Callanan, and Stockton South MP Dari Taylor are lobbying the UK government and European Commission to tackle US subsidies, which are forcing local producers to consider more profitable havens abroad.

The Back Our Biofuels campaign calls on the UK government to:

Increase political pressure on the US to stop subsidising biodiesel under the so-called “splash and dash” regime.

Restore the 20p/litre tax break for all biofuels producers beyond 2010.

Invest in more publicly funded research and development to create a world class industry.

To join our Back our Biofuels campaign, log on to nebusiness.co.uk