Green, Brown and Biodiesel
The wheels have pretty much come off Gordon Brown’s so-called Green Pre-Budget Report. It is quite clear that the measures he took, such as doubling airport departure tax, are nothing to do with helping the enviornment and everything to do with raising money.
Just before Brown stood up last week, I asked the Prime Minister what he planned to do to increase the use of biodiesel. Blair had visited a company called Regenatec in my constituency which produces technology to allow engines to be adapted to use pure plant oil. When Brown stood up, he gestured towards me as he proudly announced he was extending the fuel duty rebate for biodiesel.
You could not get a better illustration of Brown completely missing the point. Duty on diesel is 48p; duty on Biodiesel is 28p. So you would expect the latter to be 20p cheaper than the former. Not so. Biodiesel (surprise, surprise) costs more to produce - about 20p more! So they cost the same at the pump!
Worse, bus operators are allowed to claim back duty on both diesel and biodeisel, so it diesel actually costs THEM 10p less than biodiesel. No bus operator will move to biodiesel until this barmy situation is changed.