Biodiesel will solve nothing - let’s try increased motor tax instead
All things being equal this would be a ‘green’ alternative to fossil fuel because the carbon used to grow the plants is sequestered from the air - but all things are not equal.
Considerable energy input is needed for the complete cycle - to produce fertiliser, cultivate the land, harvest the crop, process it into fuel, and to distribute it, all of which comes from fossil fuels, including tax-free red diesel.
Estimates vary from 25% upwards, and some have calculated that this is even more than the energy the biofuel actually produces.
Worst of all, the Government has designated biodiesel tax-free, making it considerably cheaper.
But traffic is growing at 7% a year; cheap fuel can only accelerate this growth, and more traffic is the last thing the environment wants.
Nor will biofuels make any difference to the destructiveness caused by the manufacture and disposal of cars, tyres, lubricating oils, batteries, accidents, road-building, etc. Motorists are already heavily subsidised; they pay no charges to use the roads, and the road fund licence raises only about half the money local authorities spend on roads. In addition there are the costs of national roads, policing, accidents, lighting, pollution, etc.
Nevertheless, the road lobby has convinced us that motorists are over-taxed. However, every possible thing is taxed; there is no reason why motorists should not pay all direct and indirect costs, as well as sharing the burden of taxation.
The idea that biodiesel could replace the present consumption of fossil diesel is nonsense; there is simply not enough land available, and even if the 2010 target of 5.75% were met, it would have little impact on the projected traffic growth of 33% by that year.
The biodiesel scheme will fail for the same reason that LPG for cars failed - without a network of outlets it will be impractical and the costs of converting the vehicle will be prohibitive. Far better to blend it into ordinary diesel, which would not require any engine modifications. If legislation made this compulsory, the same taxation as for regular diesel could be levied.
The only way to tackle global warming, pollution, reliance of imported fossil fuels, plus a host of other problems caused by traffic and car dependency, is to make motoring a lot more expensive - good public transport would then evolve as a matter of course.
This is typical of politicians. When faced with a serious problem, rather than risk upsetting the punters or powerful interest groups they rely on totally irrelevant cosmetic measures, assuming the public will be fooled.
Shamefully, even the Green party is taking this approach.
Michael Job
Rossnagrean
Glengarriff
Co Cork
