Bio-based chemical industry victim of EU biofuel reform

This news update discussing EU biofuel reform is brought to you by www.euractiv.com.

 

 

Bio-based chemical industry victim of EU biofuel reform.

 

The new biofuels law risks protecting fuel companies that require state support at the EU taxpayer’s expense, write the CEOs of Arizona Chemical, Respol Resinas, and Forchem.

 

Over the past six months, the European Commission, the European Parliament and member states have negotiated an important piece of EU legislation on biofuel policy, the so-called indirect land use change (ILUC) Directive. Unfortunately, the legislation in question is now significantly alienated from what the Commission originally proposed to ensure sustainable policy on renewable energy in Europe.

 

It seems fuel companies have managed to spread misinformation. This has led EU decision makers to believe that their production, which just like ours utilise the scarce raw material Crude Tall Oil (CTO), must be given special protection by EU legislation for energy purposes. Those fuel companies are asking EU decision makers to adopt an ILUC Directive in which CTO is incorrectly classified as a residue.

 

The crux is that those companies are the very same ones that, in their national operating permits and under the EU’s chemical legislation (the REACH Regulation), have registered CTO as a product. Since the business model of those companies does not stay afloat without state subsidies, they have had to convince the Swedish and Finnish governments to manipulate their national legislation for renewables. In this way, CTO has been incorrectly and unlawfully classified as a “residue” in Sweden and Finland.

 

 

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