Virgin Atlantic to plough the fields for biofuel flights?

Sir Richard Branson is promoting biofuels for the aviation industry. One of his Virgin Atlantic planes is going to take off from Heathrow for Amsterdam, with one engine guzzling vegetable oils or the like. It sounds good, but is it?

The problem I see is that the airline companies have been targeted by the global warming warriors and told to do something about aviation fuel and how it pollutes the environment. So Branson and Co come up with biofuels. But then the eco lobby start muttering about the fields being used for growing the crops that will be turned into these fuels. Can't win, can you?

I would have thought that biofuels would be better used in cars and ground transport generally and that the aviation industry sticks to getting cleaner emissions from planes. Some crops can be given over to the fuel industry, but land for food would not be so diminished.

Friends of the Earth say Branson is involved in a gimmick, but they only seem to carp and not help create the solutions. It may all fail, but unless you try how do you know?

Posted in: biofuels,Friends of the Earth,Richard Branson,Virgin Atlantic