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Rome Plans Public Transport Switch to Biodiesel |
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| ITALY: March 19, 2007 | ||
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MILAN - Rome plans to switch its public transport to a fuel mix containing 20 percent biodiesel as the ancient city choking on car exhaust fumes aims to cut air pollution and join global efforts to fight climate change.
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The city council, regional administration and farm groups have signed an accord to create a local chain to produce biodesel, a green fuel made mainly from vegetable oils, for buses in Rome, the council said in a statement. The agreement comes after European Union leaders resolved to slash greenhouse gas emissions and switch to renewable fuels to power the battle against global warming. If tests involving about 200 buses proved successful, then Rome's entire fleet of about 2,800 public buses would use a 20 percent biodiesel fuel mix by the end of 2008, city council and farm officials said. The project would cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions -- widely believed to contribute to global warming -- by 40,000 tonnes a year, Italy's biggest utility Enel said in a separate statement. Enel would join the project by using biomass produced from vegetable oils to fuel its power plants. Local farmers would boost the area planted to oilseeds -- rapeseed, sunflower and soy -- for energy use from an experimental 400-500 hectares to 10,000 hectares and then possibly add another 10,000 hectares to meet growing biodiesel demand. Many details were still to be defined, including where to refine oils needed to produce 10,000 tonnes of biodiesel, said a city council official who asked not to be named. The project could face fiscal hurdles because Italy had yet to define planned tax incentives aimed at boosting the biofuels industry, but high production costs might be trimmed if all biodiesel was produced locally, the official said.
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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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