Back in the 1990s I remember the Green Party in Germany promising to raise the price of petrol to 5DM per Litre (around 2,50EUR). This may have just been campaigning to make their point against fossil fuels, particularly at a time when they had not been confronted with the problem of actually running the Government.

I remember a comedian on the German version of “Have I Got News For You?” even accused them once of not keeping their campaign promises – because the price of petrol still hadn’t reached that point yet.

Ten years later and that promise may be about to come true. A petrol station in Devon recently charged almost 2GBP (about 2,44EUR) per litre for diesel! Even in Germany the price of diesel has now caught up with that of the normal 95-octane fuel.

Most petrol stations here are displaying only two prices: one price for 98-octane fuel, and one for everything else! It has now become much more expensive to drive anywhere on normal petrol or diesel than ever before. And yet I still don’t see many petrol stations here offering alternatives. I still don’t see better public transport, except for special events.

I’ve read recently about new high-speed train lines being considered in the UK, about new driver-less underground trains in Nuremberg and about towns in Germany introducing mandatory solar panels on building.

Is my part of Germany starting to fall behind?

Last month I wrote about how the price of bio-ethanol in Germany had gone up for the first time since I bought my bio-ethanol car, however it is still much cheaper than the prices at the petrol pumps last weekend: around 1,559EUR per litre!

Today those prices look set to rise even more, as the price of oil rises to $135 per barrel!

What is shocking is the fact that this is a 50% increase on the price that I was blogging about only half a year ago.

So where is it going to stop?  How long until we reach the 2EUR/litre price?

I guess it had to happen in the end.  After months of blogging about the price of oil and hence the price of petrol, now the price of bio-ethanol has gone up.

The following sign greeted me when I went to fill up this week:

So now the price is at 0,949EUR/Litre, but that’s still a lot cheaper than buying normal petrol!

Readers in Germany may find this article interesting.  Once again, bio-fuels are being blamed for taking the food out of other peoples’ mouths.

What’s new about the argument this time, is that there is an explanation as to why this is happening.

Normally I hear a straight forward claim, that the production in Europe is taking food out of the mouths of people in Africa – without any thought as to whether the food would have actually been transported to Africa in the first place.

The new claim is somewhat different – due to the bio-ethanol production the price of the raw materials has risen, and that means that aid agencies have to pay more for things such as grain.  This in turn means that they can buy less of it to feed people.

Perhaps more regulation of the system is required so that the aid agencies still get their grain at a reasonable price, without stifling the competition of the bio-fuel producers?

I assume that other types of bio-fuel, eg. from wood chippings, is not affecting these prices and could therefore be a better option?