Earthrace skipper blasts NZ gov’t: “a Kiwi beat a world record using a bio-fuelled boat, but we can’t get biofuels in our own country.”

In New Zealand, Pete Bethune, skipper of the round-the-world speedboat Earthrace, said that “It is ironic that a Kiwi beat a world record using a bio-fuelled boat, but we can’t get biofuels in our own country. I am embarrassed that the world thinks of New Zealand as a leader in biofuels because of the success of Earthrace, when we are actually behind everyone else.”

The comments came as New Zealand became the only OECD country not to have biofuels available, and after the national government repealed a biofuels mandate and substituted tax incentives. The mandate that was repealed called for 0.5 percent of biofuels to be blended in the national fuel supply in 2008, increasing to 2.5 percent by 2012.

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