Government's biofuels regulatory body closes
Wed 30 March 2011
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The Renewable Fuels Agency, the body charged with regulating biofuels entering the UK market and encouraging their sustainability will cease operations on 31 March, an outcome of the Coalition Government's wider review of arms-length bodies. The duties of the RFA will be transferred to the Department for Transport.
During its brief existence, the Renewable Fuels Agency has established a system allowing the provenance of fuels to be tracked from farm to fuel supplier. This has made possible an assessment of the likely environmental risks and benefits of a given batch of fuel, allowing industry to make better-informed decisions whilst ensuring greater transparency and accountability.
At the final Board Meeting, Professor Ed Gallagher, the RFA's Chair said: “I am very proud of the Agency’s record and believe its actions have led to demonstrably more sustainable supplies of biofuels and delivered better social and environmental outcomes throughout the supply chain.”
The Agency achieved savings against its £1.5m budget of 11.5% and 8.7% in 2008/09 and 2009/10 respectively. Excluding exceptional items, the Agency's like-for-like expenditure in 2010/11 was approximately £1.2m, a saving of around 25% against its planned budget.
One of the first tasks of the new DfT biofuels unit will be to issue a quarterly report in April on product delivered to the UK market.
The new unit will also have to decide how to proceed in its case against Yorkshire Petroleum Company Ltd (Yopec) which has already received a £50,000 civil penalty for failing to meet its obligation under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligations (RTFO) Order.
The Order requires companies supplying more than 450,000 litres of diesel or petrol for road transport in the UK to match the fossil fuel they supply with a fixed percentage of biofuel and to report on the carbon intensity and sustainability credentials of that fuel.
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