1,000 signatures reached
To: Jonathan Reynolds, Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Fuel the future: Save UK bioethanol
Provide urgent support to UK bioethanol producers to protect thousands of jobs in green industry and agriculture and safeguard the UK’s domestic supply of fuel ethanol, animal feed and CO2.
Why is this important?
Bioethanol has a critical role to play in decarbonising transport, now and in the future. As part of the UK’s standard E10 petrol blend, it reduces carbon emissions and cuts fossil fuel use. Its production also delivers two essential by-products: high-protein animal feed and carbon dioxide. CO₂ is indispensable across the economy – from its importance to the NHS for its operating theatres to cooling nuclear reactors. For the food and drink sector, it is used for everything from preserving packaged food to carbonating drinks.
The US-UK trade deal is set to remove tariffs on US ethanol for up to 1.4 billion litres of imports - the size of the UK’s whole ethanol market today and far exceeding previous US exports to the UK. This change will only worsen the impacts already being felt by regulatory problems that have given overseas producers an unfair advantage in the British market in recent years.
This means that the operating environment for UK bioethanol producers is now impossible, and without government intervention UK plants will be forced to close.
The impacts of plant closures would be widespread. The UK bioethanol industry supports over 7,000 jobs, directly and through its supply chain, with the majority of these in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the North East. The loss of skilled, well-paid green industrial jobs in Yorkshire and the North East would impact local economies and could threaten future green investment in these regions.
UK bioethanol producers also process up to 2 million tonnes of feed wheat every year, providing a vital market for UK cereal farmers. If plants close, hundreds of growers will lose a dependable market for wheat that cannot be used in breadmaking. Instead, they’ll be forced to export it at lower prices, while livestock farmers will face higher costs for less climate-friendly imported animal feed.
Allowing these plants to close would be a short-sighted move. Bioethanol is essential for reducing emissions in road transport today, but will also have important future applications in decarbonising aviation and marine transport, and in supporting the development of hydrogen and wider green industrial innovation. Over-reliance on imports will undermine the resilience of our future energy supply.
It is vitally important that the government acts swiftly to protect this strategic national asset, safeguard thousands of jobs and ensure the UK’s food and energy security.
