ePure teams with sugar and corn to oppose EU plans to phase out convention biofuels

In Belgium, ePure has teamed with the European sugarbeet growers association CIBE, the European sugar refiners association CEFS and the European corn growers association CEPM to express their concern about the EU strategy for low-emission mobility, which states that the European Commission is considering a gradual phase out of conventional biofuels produced from crops such as corn, wheat, sugar beet and oilseed rape.

They say unjustified phase out of conventional ethanol will hurt Europe’s farmers and would be an unacceptable abdication of the Commission’s responsibility to protect the existing €16 billion biofuel investments that have been made in good faith and the 220,000 jobs created by the biofuel sector on the basis of existing policy. The European ethanol industry alone has invested €8 billion.

Setting a stable, long term biofuels policy that will incentivize the use of conventional and advanced biofuels, produced from European crops and feedstock, will maximize the GHG emission savings achieved in transport, improve badly damaged investor confidence and facilitate further investments in advanced biofuels.