Coast & Country Housing has solution for potential homebuyers

Jun 23 2008 The Journal

THERE’S no avoiding the energy question. With soaring fuel prices, the cost of oil continuing to climb and increasing demand to find “greener” ways to meet consumers’ needs – energy and environment have never been so important.

From big business and local authorities to individuals, it’s vital all of us take steps to minimise our carbon footprint and cut energy consumption.

Regional partners in the public, private and voluntary sector gathered together earlier this year to sign a special declaration pledging to tackle climate change. By signing the North-East Declaration on Climate Change partners acknowledged climate change is occurring and will have far-reaching effects on the region’s people, places, economy, society and the environment.

They have pledged to work together to tackle the causes of climate change and its impact.

Faced with unabated demand for oil and gas, operators are implementing a growing number of extraction projects – drilling deeper than ever and using new technology to process previously untapped reserves.

The North East has the expertise and technology to make the most of this opportunity, meaning it is very much boom-time for the region’s oil and gas sector.

NOF Energy – the organisation representing companies in the sector – estimates there are at least 700 North East businesses involved in the oil and gas industry with about 50 currently involved in the subsea sector.

The expanding subsea sector employs several thousand people and generates in excess of £500m towards the region’s economy.

This sector grew by 30% last year and will continue at that pace for many years to come.

Work continues to develop renewable energy sources – from wind and wave power to biofuels.

But about 25 million barrels of oil have yet to be removed from the North Sea – about the same volume that has already been extracted.

George Rafferty, chief executive of NOF Energy, say: “Oil and gas will remain a key component of the energy mix for the foreseeable future. While we need to look to alternative options, there are still huge opportunities in oil and gas.”

Plus there are currently more than 1,700 jobs available in the North East energy sector – offering great employment opportunities for young people entering the industry, or others looking to retrain.

But the North East is also driving development of new energy sources.

Our region has championed the green fuel issue, leading from the front and taking bold, brave steps to bring technology, jobs and hundreds of millions of pounds of investment to the North East.

Seal Sands is home to Biofuel Corporation’s £45m biodiesel plant and across at Wilton building work is now under way on Ensus’s £240m bioethanol plant.

But the sector faces great challenges.

Cut-price imports from the US are putting the UK sector under serious pressure.

There have also been good and bad stories about biofuels – with some saying this new green fuel’s cost to the planet is rainforest destruction.

But biofuels is not a black and white issue and in the North-East we are pioneering fuel that supports the entire chain – from crop to car.

The European Commission’s recent decision to launch a legal challenge against millions of gallons of cut-price fuel which is swamping the market is a significant step forward.

Demand for biodiesel has risen in the United Kingdom since the introduction of the Renewable Fuel Transport Obligation in April’s Budget, which introduced a compulsory 2.5% bio element in all fuel sold at the pumps

Regional development agency One NorthEast pledged £1.7m over the next three years to persuade global producers to invest in sustainable production of both biodiesel and bioethanol in the North-east.

Industry cluster groups the North East Process Industries Cluster (Nepic) and North East Biofuels (NEB) are working closely together to create the delivery body for the region’s first Biofuels Strategy.

The North East Biofuels Strategy has identified the industry will play a key role in meeting the recommendations of the Stern report into climate change that claimed the market for low carbon energy products is extremely likely to rise from £38bn now, to exceed £500bn by 2050.

It is part of the region’s wider green and renewable energy ambitions set out in the Regional Economic Strategy – the roadmap of how the region intends to raise its productivity over the next decade.

It identifies new and renewable energy as one of three core growth sectors for the regional economy during that time.

There is already more than £350m of private investment in biofuels in the region, and more in the pipeline.