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"Businesses involved in developing alternative fuels need a stable planning environment"

20th July 2006, Page 54
20th July 2006
Page 54
Page 54, 20th July 2006 — "Businesses involved in developing alternative fuels need a stable planning environment"
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managing availability is only half the battle. Users also need encouragement to buy what is usually a more expensive product. Simon Clifford, sales director at Keyfuels. says: "The government needs to take a much longer-term view if it is to stimulate the investment needed for alternative-fuelled vehicles to take off in the marketplace.The outlook for those developing new technologies is uncertain. Businesses involved in developing alternative fuels need a stable planning environment; in the absence of one, they will either commit resources in better-supported markets or scale down their commitment and manage their risk accordingly."

EST notes:"We are disappointed by the announcement that the government will not be supporting grant programmes to drive the market for cleaner vehicles, and that no alternative incentives are being introduced." But it emphasises that it will develop a green transport accreditation system which is to be built into DfT plans From the panoply of alternative fuels and technologies bioethanol, hydrogen. DME, compressed or liquid natural gas, hybrid electric engines there is only one which can practically be implemented by operators today, and that is biodiesel. Some alternatives, such as hydrogen, are technologies for the future; others, including CNG, seem to have become the great hope of the past.Whether we will be able to postpone our investments in greener power sources and still fulfil our national obligations remains to be seen. •

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