Hidden, limited-growth agenda powering environmental group attacks on biofuels

An article regarding a dispute between environmental groups and Virgin Atlantic over the airline’s biofuel test said “This scrap between Branson and Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, and Europe’s Green Party finally unmasks the real motives of these prominent environment groups. It is not just about biofuels, it is about limiting future growth. They apparently want to turn back the clock.”

The article helps clarify why there is strong support for biofuels in some corners of the environmental movement, such as the New Zealand Green Party, while other groups are vehemently opposed, such as the UK Green Party. The schizophrenia among environmentalist appears to reflect that the “green movement” has fused both pro- and anti-growth groups, who see biofuels as, respectively, an enabling technology or a threat to the anti-growth agenda.

In England, Sir Richard Branson announced a new business unit of Virgin Atlantic Airways that would produce algae-based biofuels for the airline’s use. Branson told reporters that algae is the best fuel feedstock because it does not affect food supply. He said that his company is “talking to a lot of sewage plants about setting up algae plants above and using a lot of the CO2 coming off those sewage plants” and said that using CO2 to produce algae for low-emission fuels was a “a double-whammy effect.”

Sir Richard Branson, in remarks surrounding the Virgin 747 biodiesel test flight, said that algae would almost certainly be the feedstock for commercial aviation biofuels, implying that the selection of coconut and babassu oil had been made in light of an algae oil shortage.

Meanwhile, the World Development Movement called his Virgin 747 biodiesel test flight a “publicity stunt with dangerous consequences for the planet” and said that Virgin owner Sir Richard Branson “should back a campaign to include aviation in the climate change bill.”

There has been an ongoing dispute between some environmental groups, such as Friends of the Earth, and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on the tally of emissions. Environmental groups typically include a calculation called “radiative force”, which attempts to multiply greenhouse gas emissions by a factor that takes into account the effect of high altitude. Using this method, it has been stated that airlines are responsible for 12 to 13 percent of all greenhouse gases. IATA uses a figure of 3 percent, or 600 million tons of CO2.

Virgin Atlantic Airways completed the successful test flight of a biodiesel-powered 747 aircraft last week, traveling from London to Amsterdam. One of the four engines ran on B20, supplied by Imperium Renewables, and made from babassu and coconut oil. Virgin had previously announced that it would use only sustainably produced biofuels in its aircraft. Boeing, which partnered with General Electric and Virgin in the test, will make another biofuels test in partnership with Air New Zealand later this year.

The use of B20 did not require any modifications to the General Electric CF6 engines for the crew-only flight.

Boeing has confirmed in tests that a wide range of feedstocks can produce biofuels suitable for jet aircraft, and the company says that these biofuels can be commercially produced on an economically viable basis. Boeing said that it expects to offer both financial and technical support to what it sees as a growing distribution system of jet biofuels.

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