“The Minister for Lands, Tony Kelly, is going down the wrong path by pushing to increase the mandated percentage of ethanol without factoring in a sustainability standard. Mr Kelly plans to increase the mandate from 2 to 6 per cent of all petrol sold by next year and to 10% by 2011”, says Greens MLC Ian Cohen.
“As the federal government reviews the current ethanol excise rebate scheme with plans to reduce or even jettison the excise, why is the Minister for Lands pushing ahead with this scheme that could be an industrial dinosaur by 2011?”
“Grain derived ethanol does not reduce greenhouse gases it increases them”, says Ian Cohen. “ Whilst ethanol may mean that fewer greenhouse gases are produced by motor vehicles, the overall effect from the production of first generation (grain based) biofuels is detrimental to the environment.”
“In South Australia and Western Australia there is significant investment going into research and development of biofuels from algae. The Federal Government has recently committed substantial funding to researching second and third generation biofuels.”
“ The Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, has said ‘The food versus fuel debate has been well documented and it is essential that grant funding reaches projects which are sustainable’.”
“How is Mr Kelly going to assess the sustainability of the NSW biofuel industry?
The E10 mandate will have a major impact on water usage. With the amount of grain needed each year to meet the E10 mandate, ethanol plants will need to source huge amounts of grain. Unless there is a massive increase in rainfall across the Murray-Darling Basin, this would be a further drain on already over-stretched water allocations for irrigation.
“If NSW has drought conditions like we did in 2001, we could be forced to import up to 5640 kilo tonnes of grain – highly problematic because of biosecurity restrictions.”
“ Would reaching these targets then mean importing material such as palm oil from Indonesia or sugar cane from South America – grown on plantations in areas where the rainforests have been destroyed.”
“Mr Kelly’s targets will induce ethanol producers to invest in massive amounts of infrastructure which will become redundant when the federal government winds up the ethanol excise. What’s going to happen to those companies that set up to make ethanol when they no longer have this federal subsidy?
More information: Catherine Coorey 0402 315 345 and Ian Cohen: 0409 989 466
No comments:
Post a Comment