NOVEMBER 20, 2006

Lords in a rush to go green

Given F1's talk of switching to diesel turbos powered with biofuel, it is worth noting that the environment is becmong more and more of a political issue.

A House of Lords select committee in Britain announced today that the government must consider further tax incentives to promote the use of biofuel. The European Union Committee published a report which says that Britain will not meet European targets for the use of biofuels in road transport in 2010 and that in order to speed things up government intervention is now necessary.

The report points out that the leading biofuel users are countries that offer significant tax concessions. Britain's Renewable Road Transport Fuel Obligation should have seen biofuels being used by two percent of vehicles by now but the actual rate is a disappointing 0.3% which means that getting to five percent by 2010 is going to be tough.

The House of Lords is the upper house of the British Parliament.