BP and Associated British Foods join forces to build £200m biofuels plant


· Site to make 420m litres of ethanol a year from 2009
· Crops may cause harm to environment, say activists

Terry Macalister
Wednesday June 27, 2007
The Guardian


Two of the biggest names in energy and food production have joined forces to build a £200m biofuels plant to meet a growing demand for greener petrol, triggering fears among environmentalists about intensive farming and its effect on wildlife habitats.
BP and Associated British Foods say the facility near Hull will reduce greenhouse gases from transport, and deny it could increase the price of food or lead to overcapacity in the fast-growing new fuel sector. But the move coincided with a financial restructuring at a fledgling UK biofuels company which claimed that a flood of subsidised green diesel supplies from America had pushed it close to insolvency