Call to make biofuel use law

Australias Agriculture Minister Kim Chance will push for laws requiring biofuels to account for 5% of all fuel used in Western Australia (WA) by 2011, despite a proposal to build the state’s only ethanol plant facing collapse. Primary Energy announced that it may not go ahead with the ethanol plant due for construction in Kwinana this year after BP Australia pulled out of a deal to buy its entire output. Chance was unaware of any other major biofuel projects in the works in WA, but was confident sustained high oil costs had made the emergence of the industry inevitable. He claimed the market had been reluctant to develop biofuels in the past because high oil prices were seen as an aberration. Chance said worldwide experience showed that the extra demand for grains and other sources of ethanol had not boosted the cost of food. (June 5, 2008)