Biofuels 'a failed experiment'

MEP Paul Nuttall

Local MEP Paul Nuttall has described biofuels as "a failed experiment."

Speaking in a debate in the EU parliament in Strasbourg Mr Nuttall, UKIP deputy leader, said that he hoped that the EU had not left it "too little too late" in now seeking to cut subsidies.

"Since day one UKIP has opposed subsidies for growing rape oil seed for biofuel instead of wheat for bread. It is practically taking food off the plate and putting it in the petrol tank.

"The EU is seeking to cut subsidies for biofuel. We in UKIP would like to see them abolished altogether. What we want is the end to this ugly spectacle of farmers reaping subsidies instead of food crops.

"The price of food in Manchester, in my constituency, goes up and the price of food in Morocco and Mozambique also goes up - all because of the EU's wrong minded policies," he said.

"A report by the EU Joint Research Centre shows the price of vegetable oil and other foods would be halved in Europe if we ended biofuels and had no subsidies. These subsidies are the hard earned taxes of the UK taxpayers. We would all rather keep that cash in our pockets than throw it away on biofuel subsidies.

"Some say that this is all in aid of fighting so called global warming due to man made carbon emissions. This is increasingly discredited as climate theory. Figures only released this week show the world has not warmed for 20 years, indeed only in this year the Arctic ice cap has increased by 60 %, which proves it is likely it is to grow as it is to shrink.

"So let's just admit it, EU biofuels and the subsidies are all about buying farmers votes and wielding power and not about putting power in fuel tanks.

"This is pushing up the price of food and it is wrong. We are in the middle of a recession. I would rather the price of food was reduced than line the pockets of rich farmers right across Europe. Biofuels are a failed experiment," he concluded.