By Michael Hogan
HAMBURG, April 3 (Reuters) – German politicians and industry groups criticised the government on Thursday for planning to raise compulsory bioethanol blending levels in fossil gasoline over fears the increase would damage older cars.
The government has said it planned to raise the level to 10 percent for some gasoline grades from five percent.
Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel will hold a press conference about the issue on Friday, when some media say they expect the government to delay its blending programme.
On Wednesday, Gabriel said the increase could be delayed if over one million cars were forced to switch to more expensive unblended gasoline grades because of possible damage.
He said he feared the change could hit lower earners who generally own older cars. More expensive gasoline grades with lower bioethanol content will still be available next year.
The association of German car manufacturers VDA said it estimated 189,000 German-made cars could be damaged and a further 170,000 vehicles could be damaged but do not use the lower gasoline grades anyway.
A spokesman for the German association of motor vehicle importers VDIK said he expected the number of imported cars which could be damaged would be “a seven figure number” but said no more precise figures could be provided.
Opposition parties and some politicians in the ruling coalition have also criticised the measure.
Germany had viewed biofuels blending as a way of achieving reductions in greenhouse gases without imposing restrictions suggested by the European Union which could hit its performance car industry.
Mixing bioethanol with fossil gasoline can reduce emissions of carbon dioxide into the environment, one of several so-called greenhouse gases that exacerbate climate change.
Otmar Bernhard, environment minister in the southern state of Bavaria from the conservative CSU party, a member of the ruling coalition, called the blending plans “climate policy hot air”. He said the government should instead concentrate on using biofuels for electricity production.
The opposition environmentalist Green party and environment lobby BUND also called for the blending plans to be abandoned.
Both argue that biofuels blending generates imports from countries which have destroyed tropical rain forests to expand agriculture, thereby providing no benefit to the environment.
A major loser from any scaling back of biofuels blending could be Brazil, which has exported large volumes of low price bioethanol to Germany for blending, said Petra Sprick, chief executive of German biofuels industry association VDB.
“German bioethanol plants are currently idle,” she said.
She said the government had a large range of options to increase biofuels usage to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets such as lifting its taxes of biodiesel which have caused a collapse in biodiesel sales this year.
