On Feb 17, 2008, at 8:39 AM, Michel Jullian wrote:
http://www.reuters.com/article/summitNews/idUSL1589672020080115
Quote:
<< At a time when the European Union wants to increase biofuel use
to stop global warming, Germany in late 2006 started taxing
biodiesel as the government said it could not afford to lose the
large tax revenue from fossil diesel.
A second round of tax increases on biodiesel was imposed on January
1 despite protests from biodiesel producers.
"Sales of biodiesel at petrol stations have really come to a stop,"
said Schrum. "The tax rise means that biodiesel is about the same
price as mineral diesel or even more expensive. We cannot sell
biodiesel at this price, it needs to be cheaper as it has a lower
energy content." >>
What a shame indeed. Their energy policy used to be one of the best
in the world, they have just taken a huge step backwards. Note
France doesn't fare better in this respect, biofuels here have
always been taxed the same as fossil fuel so production never had a
chance to take off.
Michel
This seems unfortunate, especially considering you have the added
advantage of being able to utilize atomic energy in the bio-fuel
production process. However, maybe electric vehicles will eventually
(hopefully soon) circumvent the need for combustibles, so you will
have avoided an unnecessary industry development and displacement.
Horace Heffner
http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/
