A good sign

Palm oil biodiesel losing steam

Posted by biodiversivist (Guest Contributor) at 1:51 PM on 04 Jan 2007

A leading German utility has abandoned plans to convert a British power station to run on palm oil, in a blow to the promotion of biofuels in Europe.

The decision by RWE npower to scrap the project at its Littlebrook plant in Dartford, Kent, which was seen as a test case for palm oil as an alternative energy source, comes after it was unable to secure sufficient supplies without risking damage to tropical rainforest. The move highlights the mounting alarm over the scramble in South-East Asia to bring more land into palm oil cultivation.

There wasn't enough palm oil that we could demonstrate was sustainable," the spokesman said. "The bottom line is: are you contributing to global warming by chopping down rainforest?" The company hired independent auditors to establish whether palm plantations in Malaysia could be accredited to standards set by the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil, an organisation committed to promoting a sustainable palm oil industry

The idea of sustainably grown palm is that a customer will buy from a competitor who meets sustainability standards. Instead, they scrapped using biodiesel altogether. That isn't how it was supposed to work. I for one, hope to see more of this. Essentially, what is being said here is that the palm oil based biodiesel idea is a bust. Land must be cleared to meet demand and as long as people refuse to buy palm grown on such land, game over, as it should be. It will be interesting to see how this plays out with my local biodiesel importer. What would most multi-million dollar investors do if the difference between bankruptcy and solvency required use of unsustainable palm oil?

For story: A good sign
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promising attitudes

It is good that decision-makers in Europe, especially in Germany and Britain, so readily consider green concerns when they make their decisions. That the spokesman for RWE should simply acknowledge that the company's project will not work because of the likely destruction of more rainforest, with serious implications both for atmospheric CO2 and for biodiversity, is amazing.

By contrast, it is difficult to consider e.g. Canadian mining companies with international projects at all concerned about environmental dangers, save inasmuch as they are PR problems. One is set to open a mountain-destroying gold mine in Chile. Another has been bit by bit coaxing and buying out the residents of a gold-rich region in Romania, which the ancient Romans were mining back when the place was called Dacia, so that the company may with their permission get started playing its arsenic-loaded game. In both places there is stiff resistance to the mining projects on the part of many locals. Those in Chile seem not likely to win; but those in Romania have some influential Western European allies, and may yet prevail.

Back to palm oil: I hope it is not true that Indonesia seriously intends for palm oil-based biofuel to be a major component of the country's energy sources. It is one of the most unusual of the world's sovereign states: huge, sprawling, physically disunited, hard to govern, and in fact not all that well governed. At least there seem to be serviceable networks of communication and transportation (allowing for the occasional crashes and sinkings with deaths in the hundreds), which ensure a degree of unity and continuity. But it is hard not to suspect that its stability is always a bit precarious.

What ever happened to Robert Delfs, by the way?

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 1:32 AM on 05 Jan 2007

I don't know where Robert is...

maybe he has a life /:)

And I agree, this company seems to have a large measure of integrity, either that or they fear consumer backlash at some point. Either way, it is a hopeful sign for biodiversity.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

by biodiversivist at 8:25 PM on 05 Jan 2007

Not so good

I support biodiesel, whatever the feedstock may be. On the other hand, are you aware of a site www.palmoiltruthfoundation.com that claims palm oil is the best for biodiesel? Go take a look if you are interested.

by NettelJ at 8:56 PM on 12 Mar 2007

Warning, Fake Blogger, Astroturfing Alert.

I like BioDiesel
But I'm not entirely committed to it.

And one thing is for certain.
Terrestrial farm crops are only 1-2% effecienct at converting sunlight into energy.

Algae is better, 6-8%, likely higher with better engineered facilities.
But as of yet, we don't have good Algae reactors.

What is the point of a low carbon fuel like BioDiesel if we are drastically increasing global warming by destroying rainforrests?

Which is especially key, since rain forrests are the most important carbon sinks we have.
Not just because of their density, but also due to their location.
Planting Trees Helps Fight Global Warming, but Only in the Tropics

But then again,
After looking up your address in google.

And the fact that you have a whole ONE post.

It seems like your website is just fake industrial blogging. Astroturfing.
http://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q= ...

I also don't like Imperium Renewables anymore either thanks to you site.

-David Ahlport

by GreyFlcn at 9:36 PM on 12 Mar 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

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