Thanks to the editor of The Independent who today published word for word my letter to his newspaper. I guess it ended up in Gordon Brown's press clippings for the day - and hopefully a few other people who can use the ammunition better than I can....
Brown's 'green' tax changes hit biofuel
Sir: Far from having delivered a green budget Mr Brown has just taken another step to killing off the embryonic biofuel industry in this country.
When he announced that road fuel duty was to be increased on petrol and diesel he also announced that the differential for rebated fuels would remain unchanged. Two of these rebated fuels are biodiesel and bioethanol, both of which are manufactured from renewable plant sources and are both carbon neutral and have extremely low emissions. Mr Brown has just increased the road fuel duty on these biofuels without saying as much.
The tax rebate for biodiesel is such that with a following wind it is just about possible to match the pump prices for fossil-based diesel - but with virtually no margin. Prices for raw vegetable oil, which is the key ingredient in its manufacture, fluctuate significantly and many of the producers are relatively new businesses that need all the help they can get.
Not only do we need to raise public awareness of the availability of these fuels, which can be used in today's cars without modification, but we also need to increase pressure on the vehicle manufacturers to take biofuels seriously, which at the moment they do not.
Most of the businesses involved in the manufacture of biofuels do it because of a passionate belief in the fight against carbon emissions and maybe the hope of profits some time in the future. Many of them have already closed down. Mr Brown has not helped.
RICHARD OPPENHEIMER
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