No cut in biofuel duty (From Western Telegraph)

No cut in biofuel duty

Farmers growing renewable energy crops in Pembrokeshire, say they are disappointed that an opportunity has been missed to reduce the duty on biofuels in this week's Budget.

Paul Ratcliffe, of Pembrokeshire Bio Energy Ltd, said the duty on biofuels was currently 27.1p, while the duty on LPG, a fossil fuel, was only 6p.

"There is no incentive for farmers to produce more biofuels when nothing is being done to develop the market,'' said the arable grower.

"If the Government is serious about global warming it needs to get its act together on this. There must be a long-term strategy with cross-party European consensus. If this doesn't happen we are going to end up with an energy crisis sooner or later, which could lead to a demand for more nuclear energy.''

Mr Ratcliffe is planting ten hectares of miscanthus in the next month, with funding support from the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority.

But he admitted Pembrokeshire Bio Energy Ltd was struggling to get the project off the ground, mainly because of the 50% grants on offer to arable growers in England, which weren't available to Welsh producers.

"It is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. To get the end user we need to grow the crops, but there needs to be more support to get this off the ground,'' said Mr Ratcliffe, of New House Farm, Canaston Bridge.

The enterprise is hoping to have some small district heating systems in place by the end of the year.

The Bluestone Holiday Village is expected to be a major user of renewable energy crops, but farmers must wait to hear the outcome of the appeals process before putting plans into practice.