Food vs fuel row looms
BIOFUELS bosses on Teesside are bracing themselves for another PR disaster hitting the industry tomorrow as the widely trailed Gallagher review on sustainable biofuels is published.
Triggered by an Environmental Audit Committee report earlier this year, which was highly critical of the biofuels industry and called for a moratorium on the recently introduced Renewable Fuels Transport Obligation, the report is expected to link biofuels with the global food crisis.
The report panel, chaired by Professor Ed Gallagher, head of the Renewable Fuels Agency, is expected to call for more research into the indirect impact of biofuels on land use and food production before the government sets further transport targets.
Professor Dermot Roddy, former Renew Tees Valley chief who now leads the Institute for Energy Research at Newcastle University, said the claim that biofuels were responsible for pushing up food prices was spurious. He said the industry was being used as a scapegoat for failures in the food chain and he called on the local industry to “hold its nerve” until the food crisis had passed.
“The North-east has demonstrated in practice that at the current low UK target levels for biofuel consumption there is no issue with food versus fuel,” he said.
