Australia's biodiesel crisis deepens

Australia’s largest biodiesel plant says it can no longer afford to produce the alternative fuel.<BR>Natural Fuels Limited, which has a A$90 million (US$78.8 million) facility in Darwin, says the price of the main ingredient, palm oil, has doubled in the past 18 months. Spokesman Paul Prass says there will be no more production once the company’s palm oil stockpile is used up. “We’re looking now actually to import biodiesel to actually continue to feed the markets and to build markets so that the moment we get the right feed stock and get the right balance, we can actually shut off the imports and basically shut down the plant and go from there,” he says. The news comes just a week after Australian Renewable Fuels closed its plants in Western Australia and South Australia, blaming rising feedstock prices. (November 16, 2007)