Harry's Garage and “sustainable fuels”
I just saw a Harry's Garage video on YouTube about “sustainable fuels” and found it quite interesting. I'll leave a link at the end of the post.
He was quite convincing in discussing the way it was made and the reduction in CO2 emissions that the fuel would achieve but I had a niggling feeling throughout that it wouldn't really make sense if I looked into it for a second. It didn't.
It is a little concerning to see that he is presenting this as a viable solution to “CO2-free motoring”, especially as a farmer he must appreciate that using crops (even waste) in this way is not sustainable - surely far better to be anaerobically digested and added to the gas grid for heating/electricity while producing compost?
In which case using the material to create fuel to burn in an inefficient ICE is actively worse than not doing that.
Leading on from that thought then, what worries me is that this is pretty much viable for him to switch to now, he calculates a cost of approximately £7,500 per year (based on £5 per litre of fuel) to switch 10,000mi of driving per year (60% of his total mileage) to this fuel, which as a wealthy man he can afford and may well do so in that belief of reduced emissions. Tens of thousands of viewers of that video will, I imagine happily agree with him.
The fact that he seems to be damning EVs with faint praise as well is just annoying but inevitable in the world of combustion YouTube!
The idea of using the fuel in aviation has the same problems as its use in "enthusiast" ICE use but on an even larger scale so that is even more alarming. Aviation seems to be the main use case for these fuels I come across on major news sources.
Harry does call for much more taxation on aviation which is good to hear a voice such as his calling for at least and is something I totally agree with. By discussing it in the context of comparing tax on road fuel against aviation taxes I can't imagine anyone thinking the double standard is fair or sensible - there is basically no tax on aviation in comparison.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyUiHafCdvM
A related link: https://www.airportwatch.org.uk
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