What would be the impact if the government made it compulsory for NEW cars to run on biofuels from 2012?

Question

Note- it sucessfully made seatbelts, and catalytic converters etc compulsory!

Answer 1

I understand that Sweden will become independent of oil within 3 years. They currently make bio-fuel from sugar cane waste that is imported from South America. However, they have now developed a way of making bio-fuels from trees. Apparently their forests produce 20% more timber than required for other purposes so the additional amount can be used to make bio-fuel. As they have a small population and a large forest resource this solution might work for them. The same cannot be said for the UK. Nevertheless, some bio-fuel could still be made (perhaps using the sugar cane waste no longer required by Sweden) and blended with gasoline thus reducing our dependence on oil.

Answer 2

Well thats an interesting top down approach. That by the way didn't work out that well. Seatbelts are a good safety feature but most people want them anyway.

Catalytic converters were not as nearly as successful. First you had to run unleaded gas or the converters would clog. Most people punched out the plug in the bottom of them and drained out the catalyst and ran leaded gas.

Then they required the oil companies to take leaded gas off the market. Which increased the cost of gasoline and introduced alternative chemicals which have leaked into the environment and it is difficult to say if environmentally if it was an improvement or made things worse. What is certain it diverted resources from other sectors of the economy into the production of gasoline and made gas more expensive.

Another example you failed to mention is the manditory fuel economy standards. Which resulted in lighter weight vechicals which get better gas mileage and don't hold up as well during an accident. It is estimated that the fuel economy standards have cost 40,000 lives and counting since they were inacted.

The bottomline is we can't know all the unintended, unforeseen consequences of government regulation, much less the consequences of consequences. What is certain is that if these "New" cars don't perform as well as the old ones they will be rejected by consumers.

Answer 3

Oil - a generic term for organic liquids that are not miscible with water.
Organic - Of, relating to, or derived from living organisms.
Bio-: Prefix indicating living plants or creatures, as in biology, the study of living organisms.

As you can see, oil is technically a bio-fuel.
So would there really be any difference?
To make a difference, the use of oil as a fule would have to be specifically banned, and that will not happen any time soon.

Answer 4

First of all you need more land space. This would increase CO2 emissions because new roads would have to be built to access the huge farms. Then you would need giant harvesting machines to gather the plants. Huge processing factories to make the fuel. Large areas to store the ready made mix for continuous usage. And most of all where do you store the massive car batteries when they are worn out. Big headaches.!

Answer 5

James Lovelock inventor of the Gaia Hypothesis and considered by many to be the father of modern environmentalism is dead against bio-fuels for cars. He believes that far too much of the worlds surface is already given over to human food production, and the inevitable clearance of more virgin forest that would be needed for a switch to bio-fuels would be even more detrimental to the planet.
Incidentally, he is pro-nuclear.

Answer 6

You would have a lot more Hybrid cars, but I would think that they will mes about until it is too late then expect every one to change over night.Most British car manufacturers were producing Lead Free cars for the USA as early as 1975 and possibly earlier, but they waited until the 90's before they introduced them to England

Answer 7

I would think it would make a great deal of difference to the green house effect (for the better of course). It would also make a great deal of difference to the Chancellors coffers unless he found a hidden way of taxing the biofuels.

Answer 8

It would have a cumlative effect in this country but it would need to be worldwide to make a significant change. But hey, even a small change is a change for the better!

Answer 9

the impact would be a cleaner environment..

Answer 10

Whatever it is .....pollution is unavoidable....... Well goverment is GOD!! So don't wonder.