Advanced BioFuels USA

by Gustav Melin (Bioenergy International/Swedish Bioenergy Association)  … The energy transition cannot be expedited by support and subsidies  —  However, it is difficult to be re-elected on increased carbon dioxide taxes and more expensive energy prices. That’s no excuse, as there are plenty of applications where biofuels or renewable electricity are cheaper than fossil energy.

There are also many opportunities to “help” citizens to switch to renewable energy sources, opportunities that are not being used.

Politicians are happy to use support and subsidies to bring about change. These are important for testing new technology, and for research and development. But for wider use, subsidies often have a detrimental effect by coercing investments into a specific technology or solution at the expense of others – a technology lock-in.

Upgraded biogas – biomethane aka renewable natural gas (RNG) is commonly used as a renewable transportation fuel in public transport in Sweden.

For example, what is the climate benefit of changing biomethane-powered buses in many Swedish cities to electric buses?

What is the climate benefit of the bonus-malus system when we know that a diesel car that runs on renewable diesel (HVO100) emits less CO₂ during its life cycle than an electric car that runs on Norwegian hydroelectricity?

Why should society pay for electric car charging equipment at the homes of those who can afford to buy an electric car, when society has never otherwise paid for the refueling of cars?

…

However, electrification must compete on equal terms with other technologies and solutions. The cost of solving the climate issue with electrification on a global level is unreasonable and impossible within the time frame the climate issue is decided.

Many see electrification as a means to do away with harmful emissions from combustion. But renewable fuels in modern engines, stoves, and cogeneration plants do not cause dangerous emissions.

There is therefore no reasonable or logical environmental reason to give electrification a special position in climate work.

Overhead power lines require vegetation management.

On the contrary, one should be restrictive with building new power lines over forests and land. The environmental problems surrounding battery manufacturing including mining must also be addressed before they are sold on a large scale.

Above all, an over-focus on electrification pushes politicians to postpone important climate decisions.

Believing that you will solve the transport sector’s climate problems solely with electric vehicles is a typical climate disaster caused by propaganda around electrification.

This applies throughout Europe and it applies not least in Sweden if the new government implements its proposal to drastically reduce the use of renewable and sustainable biofuels.  READ MORE

Sweden makes regulatory push to allow new nuclear reactors (Reuters)

Mapped: Biggest Sources of Electricity by State and Province (Visual Capitalist)

What Are the Five Major Types of Renewable Energy? (Visual Capitalist)

Can California’s power grid handle a 15-fold increase in electric cars? (San Francisco Chronicle)