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According to the Telegraph , retailers say the Government’s switch to greener fuel played a significant role in September’s petrol crisis.The chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association, Brian Madderson, said fuel shortages came as an “unintended consequence” of the Government’s decision to switch to E10 petrol.
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View Deal Brought to you by “For weeks, we had been emptying our tanks of E5, the old fuel, as fast as we could to get ready for E10,” he said.
“We had all run our petrol stocks down.
“So, when the panic buying started, many of our members ran out pretty quickly.
“Then the shortage of HGV drivers meant we couldn’t get supplies of petrol or diesel quickly enough.
“I don’t blame the Government particularly but the E10 switchover clearly had an unintended consequence: we couldn’t cope with the surge in demand.”
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E10 farce as switch to greener fuel ‘major factor’ behind petrol crisis, retailers claim (Image: Getty)
Petrol station shortage (Image: Getty) The Government replaced standard E5 unleaded petrol with the greener E10 fuel on September 1.
Following the change, the amount of fuel stored at the UK’s forecourts dipped by up to a quarter.
Official figures released by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Industrial Strategy on Thursday, also appear to indicate fuel deliveries remained stable before the switch to E10, despite a shortage in HGV drivers.
However, the Department for Transport has suggested the greener fuel does not explain the shortage.
A spokesperson from Great Minster House told the Telegraph: “There is no evidence to suggest that the introduction of E10 was related to the fuel shortage.
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UK lorries (Image: Getty) “The fuel issues we have seen in recent weeks were caused by an unprecedented spike in demand caused by atypical consumer behaviour.
“The legislation that the Government put in place to introduce E10 allows fuel retailers to still use existing stocks until November 1 as part of a gradual change, so there was no need for the emptying of storage tanks.
“This timeframe was extensively discussed and agreed with stakeholders.”
The decision to switch from E5 to E10 has been touted as an interim step for the Government to reach the UK’s net zero target by 2030.
E10 produces lower emissions than E5 as rather than coming from petroleum oil, the ethanol in the greener fuel is extracted from natural sources, such as grains.
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Grant Shapps’ Department for Transport rejected the claims (Image: Getty) The Government suggests the switch could reduce CO2 emissions by 750,000 tonnes per year.
However, Whitehall also claimed drivers may get slightly fewer miles to the gallon on the new petrol.
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