Plans by the Norwegian government to mandate usage of much more biofuel, as another so-called \u201cgreen\u201d measure that helped secure last year\u2019s state\u00a0budget compromise, may end up backfiring as little more than a budget bluff. New statistics suggest that\u00a0more production and consumption of biofuel may actually raise\u00a0carbon emissions instead of lowering\u00a0them, and at another huge cost to motorists.<\/p>\n
Both private car owners and the trucking industry will have to bear the burden of biofuel costs, if the government\u2019s ambitious plans pan\u00a0out. Doubts are rising, since biofuel can arguably raise carbon emissions instead of lowering them. PHOTO:\u00a0newsinenglish.no
\nNewspapers Aftenposten, Bergens Tidende, Adressa, Stavanger Aftenblad and F\u00e6drelandsvennen jointly asked Norway\u2019s state statistics bureau SSB (Statistics Norway) to calculate the actual climate effects of the last compromise on the state budget. After quarreling for months, the Conservatives and the Progress Party finally reached agreement on the budget with their government coalition\u2019s support parties, the Liberals and Christian Democrats.<\/p>\n
The key to the compromise, reported Aftenposten and the other newspapers on Wednesday, was a demand that 512 million liters of biofuel must annually be blended into all gasoline and diesel fuel sold in Norway by 2020. That means that 20 percent of all fuel used in vehicles driving on Norwegian roads will\u00a0be biofuel, made from plants\u00a0and, in Norway, refuse\u00a0and byproducts from the country\u2019s forestry industry.<\/p>\n
The newspapers reported that the head of the Norwegian forest owners\u2019 federation (Norges Skogeierforbund), Erik Lahnstein of the rural-oriented Center Party, and his members had been lobbying hard last fall for a government mandate for more biofuel use. They stand to earn large amounts of money in the future if Norwegian forestry products are used to produce biofuel.<\/p>\n
\u2018Fuel revolution\u2019
\nSince biofuel is far more expensive than gasoline (petrol) or diesel, however, it\u2019s the car owners and transport firms like trucking companies that will bear the costs. The government predicted itself\u00a0that biofuel prices will be\u00a0as much as NOK 4-7 more per liter than fossil diesel, amounting to a total of NOK 3.2 billion per year that will need to be shared by private car owners and the transport industry.<\/p>\n
Critics are starting to sound off over the biofuel plans that sailed through Parliament in December and resulted in what some are calling a costly \u201cfuel revolution\u201d that occurred with virtually no debate and without any thorough evaluation of the consequences.<\/p>\n
Geir A Mo, director of the national trucking federation Norges Lastebileier-forbund, is among those now shifting into protest gear. The biofuel measure hashed out and approved by the two government parties and their two support parties \u201cresembles a variation of the plastic-bag tax<\/a> (which ended up being scrapped) and the airline seat tax<\/a>,\u201d said Mo. \u201cIt\u2019s probably a well-intentioned measure hammered out late on a Saturday night while\u00a0a possible government crisis hung over the heads of those negotiating it.\u201d<\/p>\n Skeptics galore Motorists, moreover, would be forced to finance the production and consumption of biofuel, at a time when they\u2019re already being hit by higher fuel taxes, higher road tolls and probably even a new tax on\u00a0vehicles themselves in Oslo, as officials try to discourage driving as best they can.<\/p>\n The government, meanwhile, claims the use of \u201cadvanced biofuel\u201d in Norway based on the twigs, scraps and other refuse\u00a0of forest industry activity, would be positive for the climate accounts. Vidar Helgesen, the government minister in charge of climate and environmental issues for the Conservatives, believes it\u2019s most important if biofuel can reduce carbon emissions globally.<\/p>\n Helgesen stressed that the consequences of using so much proposed biofuel will now go out to hearing. \u201cWe think it (biofuel) will help, but that must be quality-secured,\u201d Helgesen said. He also called\u00a0biofuel a \u201ctransitional product\u201d in the private car market, as climate-minded motorists move from conventionally fueled vehicles to electric and other low-emission models. He sees more potential for biofuel within the heavy transport industry, although many of its officials don\u2019t agree. Arild Smedsrud, an executive at Nortransport, mostly sees higher costs down the road if the government persists in mandating the blending of so much biofuel into gasoline and diesel. The Nortransport boss said he\u2019ll feel cheated if the biofuel actually contributes to more carbon emissions instead of less.<\/p>\n Helgesen conceded that it\u2019s possible the biofuel plans won\u2019t be able to be carried out, to the disappointment of forestry industry officials like Lahnstein and climate advocates like Liberal Party leader Trine Skei Grande. She has continued to claim that the state budget for this year, which included many of her party\u2019s demands, is the most climate-friendly ever. That may not prove to be true.<\/p>\n Much like how he ultimately and controversially determined that Norway\u2019s wolf-hunting plans needed to be curbed, Helgesen now realizes the government may need to shift gears on its biofuel plans, too. His former government colleague as oil and energy minister Tord Lien is now among those criticizing the government\u2019s biofuelplans: \u201cThey can weakent confidence in climate measures,\u201d Lien told newspaper Aftenposten. \u201cIt will be extremely expensive and that\u2019s not sustainable or good for the climate.\u201d<\/p>\n Other government officials realize, like Helgesen, that they may need to backtrack. Knut Arild Hareide of the Christian Democrats said the 20 percent blend was \u201ca goal,\u201d but whether it\u2019s possible, we\u2019ll see.\u201d Hans Andreas Limi of the Progress Party said that the 20 percent \u201cisn\u2019t carved in stone. If it\u2019s not possible, we\u2019ll adjust our ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plans by the Norwegian government to mandate usage of much more biofuel, as another so-called \u201cgreen\u201d measure that helped secure last year\u2019s state\u00a0budget compromise, may end up backfiring as little more than a budget bluff. New statistics suggest that\u00a0more production and consumption of biofuel may actually raise\u00a0carbon emissions instead of lowering\u00a0them, and at another huge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[5838,5714],"supplier":[12650,13213,13212],"class_list":["post-41282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-bioeconomy","tag-biofuels","supplier-government-no-norwegian-government","supplier-norges-skogeierforbund","supplier-statistics-norway"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41282"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=41282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHe\u2019s far from the only skeptic who\u2019s been busy examining the measure since it was approved. The main problem with biofuel, according to EU officials who\u2019ve been arguing over biofuel as well, is that its production can thin the forests and drain the marshes that otherwise can capture and store carbon emissions. Cutting trees down for biofuel can, estimate experts, actually result in more emissions, not less. SSB calculated that given the quantities of biofuel that the government wants to produce and use by 2020, Norway would register a rise in carbon emissions of 90,000 tons, equivalent to 29,000 more cars on the road.<\/p>\n