ePURE against EU’s Roll Back of Ethanol Use

by Tim Albrecht (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The European renewable ethanol association, ePURE, issued a statement decrying the recent agreement by EU energy ministers to roll back plans to use renewable energy in transportation, calling it a step in the wrong direction in the fight against climate change.

The Council agreed on a 14 percent renewables target for the transport sector by 2030 for each member state, with a sub-target of 3 percent for advanced biofuels. The existing 7 percent cap on first-generation ethanol is maintained, but if a member state sets a lower cap, it could reduce its overall target for transport renewables.

Coupled with the use of artificial multipliers for other renewable energy sources, this would have a double-barrelled effect leaving more room in the EU’s post-2020 transport energy mix for fossil fuel and of harming development of sustainable domestically produced biofuels like renewable ethanol, said ePURE in the statement. READ MORE

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: While top officials such as European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič keep up the cheerleading in speeches and press releases, their proposals would actually make a bad situation worse.

The latest State of the Energy Union report from the Commission offered a vivid example of how the EU is working against its own goals when it comes to renewables policy.

And by proposing a low-emissions fuel blending obligation of just 6.8 percent by 2030, starting from 1.5 percent in 2021, it would leave an unacceptably large percentage of the transport energy mix taken up by fossil fuels.

The environment committee, which is in charge of the biofuels section of the Renewable Energy Directive, has pushed for a total phase-out of crop-based biofuels by 2030—an even more draconian vision than what the Commission wants.

The most recent opinion, from the industry and energy committee, went in yet another direction. It would raise the overall EU ambition for renewables in the energy mix to 35 percent, and set a target of 12 percent renewables in transport. While at first glance that seems like a positive step, the proposal also would exclude crop-based biofuels such as renewable EU ethanol from a new, higher blending obligation on fuel suppliers set at 10 percent. So it would still slow down progress toward decarbonization—again, leaving the door open for fossil fuels.

This round-and-round positioning on biofuels even has environmental lobby groups confused about the best way forward. A group of them cosigned a letter in November urging members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to reject a renewables target for transport.

The full European Parliament will decide its position on RED II on Jan. 15. Ideally, it will move closer to what EU Member States are asking for in their draft position: build on the success of the existing framework; leave in place the 7 percent cap on crop-based biofuels; and promote advanced biofuels and renewable electricity in addition to, not at the expense of, existing solutions.

It needs to use the tools it has today—including sustainable crop-based biofuels—as it lays the groundwork for more advanced technologies.