Biofuels: a blueprint for the future?

Our cars and other forms of transport are the third-largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the UK and the only one likely to have increased by 2020. Any serious attempt to tackle climate change requires us to dramatically step up our efforts to reduce these emissions. So a clean, renewable energy that can be mixed with fossil fuels to power our cars has great attraction.

This is exactly what supporters of biofuels believe they offer. They say they are one of the few existing, feasible ways of slowing the growth of carbon emissions from transport. They point as well to their advantages in reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels at the same time as providing opportunities for developing countries to grow and refine the "green" energy source.

These arguments and the evidence that supports them have convinced many countries to promote their production and led the government to take cautious steps to encourage their use through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation. The RTFO, which comes into force tomorrow, requires 2.5% of the fuel sold on garage forecourts to come from renewable sources, a figure set to rise to 5% after two years.
But the government also recognises increasing concern about biofuels. Critics say there is very little "green" about them; in their view, savings of greenhouse gases have been exaggerated, if not invented. They warn that the dash to grow palm oil, sugar cane and other crops from which biofuels are made is leading to widespread destruction of forests and wildlife habitats around the world - and worsening food shortages as farmland is switched to industrial crops. This is something that must be examined closely. As Alistair Darling outlined at the weekend, the government has asked the World Bank to look into food markets and the impact of subsidies in time for the next G7 meeting in June.


Ruth Kelly and Peter Ainsworth

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Protesters promise a fight to halt eco-towns

Four proposed new towns of 15,000 homes or more are on a shortlist of 15 sites for the eco-town programme published by the government yesterday.

The list will be cut to 10 successful bids in the next six months, each of which will have to be zero-carbon as a whole and an "exemplar" in at least one area of environmental sustainability.

The programme, which aims to have towns of between 5,000 and 20,000 homes under development by 2020, is expected to provoke strong local opposition.

Many of the most controversial bids among the 57 submitted have survived the first round of competition for the first new towns in England since the 1960s.

They include Pennbury, south-east of Leicester, in which the Co-op is a leading partner, and Rossington, South Yorkshire.

A proposed 5,000-home development near Weston-on-the-Green, Oxfordshire, where Tim Henman's father has been a leading objector, is also on the shortlist.

Anthony Henman said: "This will destroy our village community as we know and enjoy it ... If we wanted to live in a town, we would, but we love village life."

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Warm Front's heating scheme leaves the elderly cold

We're not surprised when cowboy builders fleece pensioners.

But when a £350million-a-year government-funded scheme is accused of doing the same, it's a different story.

Warm Front pays for new central heating systems and insulation for some of Britain's poorest households.

But last week MPs lined up to accuse Eaga plc, the firm running Warm Front, of ripping off pensioners and the taxpayer.
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We've heard horror stories of our own. Retired Jack and Elizabeth Thompson, of Barnsley, South Yorks, got a £2,700 Warm Front grant after their boiler burst.

But they were asked to pay £2,100 for extra work that their son Andrew said wasn't needed and he should know - he's a former Warm Front contractor.

Disabled Gary Thomas from Liverpool has gone though two broken boilers and three water pumps since Warm Front offered to replace his boiler.

Eighty-year-old Matthew Carroll, from Leeds, was left with a hole in his roof and a £130 repair bill after a visit from Warm Front engineers.

Since its launch in 2000, the scheme has helped to heat 1.6 million households and cut their fuel bills.

But something appears to have gone wrong. Labour MP Robert Flello told the House of Commons: "The trickle of complaints coming to my desk has turned into a flood."

He's worried that an "excellent idea" is being abused and cited the scandal of a Warm Front customer being charged for scaffolding - although he lives in a bungalow.

Reports by Warm Front's independent "quality assessor", released to us under the Freedom of Information Act, show the number of unhappy customers has almost trebled since 2006 to 14 per cent.

We met Eaga's boss John Clough at the firm's Newcastle HQ and he said the same assessor called the scheme "very competitive" and insisted the true level of upheld complaints was less than half a per cent.

But the assessor also warned of a "potential void" because, until recently, inspectors only checked work done - not work billed for. In one case, a woman paid £350 towards work not carried out. This was only spotted by chance by the assessor, who arranged a refund.

The assessor concluded: "The extent the scheme is being abused cannot be determined."

When Warm Front was launched, the standard £2,500 grant almost always covered the work needed.

Now 40 per cent of householders needing new heating systems are asked to top up the grant. Eaga currently has 131 sub-contracted installers. Six have left since 2005, seven are suspended and six more are being closely monitored.

Clough, who's been paid £1.5million in two years as Eaga's chief exec, says: "If you are doing 250,000 homes a year, then there are some instances where sadly we do fall short of the standards we set ourselves.

"We are not perfect. But we refute the accusation of ripping off the government."

Trickle of complaints has turned into a flood

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The man making 'wind bags'

Seamus Garvey wants to "store the wind".

He believes the future of energy is storing it as compressed air in giant bags under the sea.

And a major power company has invested in the scheme.

Professor Garvey, a long-time proponent of compressed air, feels vindicated by the research grant.

He said: "As the country and the whole world moves toward using more renewable energy, we're going to need energy storage."

His idea would utilise familiar renewable sources - wind, waves and tidal power.
But Professor Garvey does not believe we should be forced to "use it or lose it" when conditions are best.

Energy would instead be used to compress and pump air into underwater bags, anchored to the seabed.

When energy demand is highest, the air would be released through a turbine, converting it to electricty.

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