Fuel Price Strike Shows: It Is High Time for Alternative Fuels

Delhi, India, July 6, 2010: On july 5, 2010: life in many Indian metropolises, like Mumbai, Kolkata or Bangalore, has been severely disrupted as the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called for a strike. BJP followers protested the fuel price hike that resulted from aligning Indian fuel prices to the world market price.

The opposition allied itself with leftist parties and called out an All India Strike that has ground normal life to an abrupt halt in many parts of the country. Rail, bus and metro services have been affected, flights have been cancelled, many colleges, schools and businesses remained closed and party workers who joined the strike protested on the streets and erected road blockades. Few workers attended office, since they feared getting stuck on their way to work.

The situation in Delhi, as the Congress Party governed capital, remained comparably calm. BJP supporters congregated at several points over the capital. Important traffic hubs like the Anand Vihar bus terminal and major road junctions in Preet Vihar, Laxmi Nagar and Akshardam were blocked, as demonstrators tried to hinder the movement of public as well as private vehicles. Protesters were witnessed putting up brawls with the police.

LK Advani, Senior BJP leader called the deregulation of fuel prices, which will increase the price of petrol by approximately three and a half rupees and diesel by about two rupees a litre, an “insensitivity of the government”.

Today’s strike is a classic example of how important fuel has become to everyday life. Even the most trivial movement today ran the risk of being put to a complete halt, let alone the outbreaks of violence over the in many cities. However, a range of alternatives are self-evident. The price for one litre of biodiesel is around 36.5 rupees – that is 20 per cent less than the average price for a litre of diesel obtained from non-renewable, fossil resources.

So far the government mandates a biofuel blending of merely five per cent. Counting as a step into the right direction, it is high time to make much bigger allowances. A higher level of biofuel blending is easy to accomplish; even commercial as well as private vehicles consuming nothing but a 100 per cent biofuel are not a dream of the future anymore. Yet, India is lagging behind in putting this very viable, cost-efficient and eco-friendly solution into practice. A constructive approach would undo the fear of many: the increase of the inflation rate by raising fuel prices. The technology to produce the required amount of biofuel to provide for the nation’s demand is already in its starting blocks, waiting to become a full-fledged alternative.

Someone who has already broken this ground is Earth-100, a company that offers a convenient “green solution” for eco-friendly transportation. Not only does Earth-100 provide cars that run on 100 per cent biofuel, they also organize management services for covering the entire operations chain for its customers. This includes the supply and dispensing of fuel, maintaining and servicing the vehicles and also tracking car performance for its customers. The vehicles Earth-100 supplies are modified so that they can run on 100 per cent biofuel and can replace a conventional fuel-operated car fleet while having the ability to run on normal diesel (if required) from the same tank.

“Finding an on-the-ground solution was – in our eyes – the only sensible thing to do. A financial solution like trading carbon credits didn’t really make the difference we wanted to make”, says Akshat Rathee. “In order to reduce one’s carbon footprint our way one has to set one’s heart on it. Corporates who have enough concern for the environment will go for a practical solution like Earth-100’s biofuel cars.”

Since 2008 Earth-100 has been setting up a dependable supply chain and will soon start operating green car fleets in NCR.

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