National stage for Teesside biofuels
THE TEESSIDE biofuels industry ramped pressure on the Government yesterday to stick to previously agreed targets on green transport as it launched a regional strategy that will put it in the driving seat for the UK's low-carbon revolution.
Around 120 MPs, industrialists, farmers and other stakeholders gathered for the Westminster launch yesterday, clearly aimed at positioning the region as the country’s main biofuels hub.
Billions of pounds of investment have poured into the Tees and Tyne Valleys in support of the industry - which has seen the country’s biggest biodiesel plant established on Teesside and what will be Europe’s largest bioethanol refinery at Wilton. But MPs warned that a proposed slow down in UK biofuels targets could discourage more money coming into the region.
Emboldened by recent reports that the biofuels industry was not to blame for food price hikes, supporters called for an unequivocal commitment to the Government’s 5% biofuels target by 2010, which they argued would encourage venture capitalists needed to grow the industry.
Stockton South MP Dari Taylor, who hosted the launch, told nebusiness: “We have won the debate on food versus fuel - for the first time we are beginning to get people to understand that when we grow wheat for food the world’s rainforests will be less - not more - predated.”
She said the Gallagher Report, which prompted the Government to consult further on biofuels targets, sending jitters through the investment markets, had been widely misinterpreted.
“The Gallagher Report concluded we should proceed with caution, but it didn’t say stop,” she said.
The launch of the strategy included a detailed rebuttal of the criticism linking biofuels with food price hikes. It will be used to counter environmentalist’s argument against a full-throttle biofuels policy on the grounds that it displaced land needed for food crops and contributed to food inflation. Chairman of North East Biofuels, Professor Rod McDermot, said history showed that food prices were linked to oil not biofuels.
Mrs Taylor said Teesside had been in the shadows for too long. “We’ve got the Government’s attention on what we are developing in the North-east now - the technological competence, transferrable processes and value-added scientists, and all are overwhelmed by the work done. This is a great moment for the North-east.”
Sir Rob Margetts, chairman of Ensus, the company behind Europe’s largest bioethanol plant, said: “We believe we will succeed because of the integrated infrastructure we have around Teesport, underpinned by the local catchment of high-yielding farming. But significant investment and consistent Government policy is still needed to move the industry forward.”
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