The biofuel con

Biofuel is moving up the political agenda. Far less controversial than nuclear energy, it is now routinely included in the government’s mix of painless fixes for resolving the environmental crisis. “By 2010, 5 per cent of all the UK’s fuel will come from biofuels,” says the Secretary of State for Transport, Alistair Darling. “By then it will be saving us around one million tonnes of carbon-dioxide emissions a year.”

But hang on a minute. Biofuel is fuel from crops: where will they all be cultivated? If we grow them here, we will have to plant almost half of our arable land with oil crops, largely rape, by 2010. And that’s only the start – the idea is to increase biofuel use until it powers 40 per cent of our cars, buses and lorries. The conclusion is inescapable: the fuel will have to be imported. But from where?

The New Statesman