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Budget boost's region's green prospects

A range of measures in last week’s Budget aimed at encouraging the use of ‘green’ fuels and increased recycling levels have been welcomed by authorities in the Tees Valley area as “good news for further strengthening our area’s role as a centre for the development of new environmental technologies.”

Regeneration organisation Renew Tees Valley highlighted proposals from the Chancellor to extend to 2010 the duty differential on biofuels worth 20p per litre and the reduction in Company Car tax for vehicles able to run on the ‘E85’ mix of 85 per cent bioethanol and 15 percent petrol.

Doctor Dermot Roddy, Chief Executive of Renew Tees Valley, said: “The fact Gordon Brown put environmental issues at the heart of the Budget can only be good news for an area such as the Tees Valley which is now widely recognised as leading the way in a whole range of renewable energy and recycling developments. “The Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Alistair Darling have also announced their intention to hold a competition for projects to build a full-scale Carbon Capture and Storage plant in the UK. We have been working closely with Progressive Energy in this field and I have no doubt the Tees Valley project will be amongst the leading contenders for this useful financial assistance.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .