Letter to stakeholders
Dear stakeholder
1. Update on RTFO Order
The Government intends to lay the RTFO Order in Parliament shortly after the House returns from the summer recess next month. Thereafter the Order will need to be considered by the relevant Parliamentary scrutiny committees and debated in both Houses before coming into effect. This process is likely to take around 2 months. The Order has been amended to take into account a number of the comments that were made during the consultation earlier this year (a summary of responses to that consultation is available here ). We will let you know when the Order has been laid in Parliament, at which point it will become a publicly available document.
2. Shadow Chairman of Renewable Fuels Agency
The Department for Transport has today appointed Professor Ed Gallagher as the shadow chairman of the proposed new Renewable Fuels Agency, which is due to come into existence once Parliament has approved the RTFO Order. Professor Gallagher will be advising the Government on the establishment and strategic direction of the proposed new Agency. He has previously been the Chief Executive of the Environment Agency and National Rivers Authority, as well as the Managing Director of Amersham International and the Director of Marketing and Product Development at Black and Decker. He has been the Chair of Energywatch since 2004, and was the Chair of Middlesex University from 1994-2004.
3. Initial ideas on long-term future of RTFO
The Department for Transport has also today issued the attached informal policy paper setting out some early ideas on how the RTFO might evolve over time, and how in particular it might reward biofuels differently according to the amount of carbon that they save. We intend to discuss these ideas further with stakeholders over the months ahead prior to a formal consultation on a revised RTFO Order in due course. The paper will also be available via the RTFO website in due course.
Rupert Furness
RTFO Programme Director
