Government response on biofuels

The Government has finally responded to Council Leader Barbara Janke's letter of 1st February about the issue of tropical biofuels and (a) the lack of reliable sustainability standards, and (b) the lack of meaningful and current planning guidance to allow local people to challenge applications to build them.

I've not had a chance to analyse closely yet, but my initial reaction is broadly positive, in that the Government is clearly aware of the issues and shares many of the concerns that Bristol raised with them. They accept that there is a planning hole and that it is difficult to assess sustainability for tropical biofuels, despite this being a key plank of why they get hefty government subsidies.

However, we need to remember that the Government could make all this go away simply by changing the ROC system that makes tropical biofuel plants financially viable. Also, the letter doesn't really give a strong timetable for when the planning vacuum will be filled by something meaningful.

I will be talking to Barbara about a possible response - any thoughts to feed in at this stage would be very welcome.