OFTEC IRELAND NEWS
NORTHERN IRELAND POLITICIANS ARE BACKING A BILL AIMED AT REDUCING THE DUTY CHARGED ON RENEWABLE LIQUID HEATING, WHICH COULD PAVE THE WAY FOR RAPID ADOPTION OF HVO ACROSS THE COUNTRY…
OFTEC welcomes MPs’ support of HVO for home heating
A Bill aimed at reducing the duty charged on renewable liquid heating fuel has won the support of two Northern Ireland MPs. DUP’s Jim Shannon and Sammy Wilson have both confirmed their support for the Bill, which was tabled in Westminster by George Eustice, MP for Camborne and Redruth in England. If successful, the Conservative MP’s Bill would pave the way for hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) to be adopted as a heating source across Northern Ireland’s 500,000 liquid-fuelled homes. This method of heating homes across Northern Ireland is supported by OFTEC, the trade association for liquid fuel appliance manufacturers and installers. Mr Shannon put his name to the Bill and said he was actively supporting it while Mr Wilson said the points raised by Mr Eustice in the debate deserve support. During the debate, Mr Eustice said: “The Government have long recognised the value of renewable fuels in the transport sector. We have the renewable transport fuel obligation (RTFO), which requires fuel manufacturers and importers to purchase a proportion of fuel from renewable sources. “The Bill would extend the RTFO mechanism to cover the use of renewable fuels in domestic heating and remove the current duties from these renewable fuels, which are entirely counterproductive. “The intended impact of my Bill is to reduce the cost of HVO so that it can achieve parity with kerosene. If we get parity of cost with kerosene—the cost of conversion is modest—we will see a very rapid adoption of HVO.” Later this year, The Department for Economy will carry out a consultation on decarbonising the heating sector before presenting a plan on how they propose to action this. The plan will outline how Northern Ireland will
David Blevings, OFTEC Ireland Manager.
“It was very encouraging to see two local MPs come out and publicly declare their support for this Bill.”
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