French court OKs ban on palm oil biofuels
In France, a French court upheld a law requiring that palm oil be excluded as a qualifying feedstock for biofuels, promoting immediate, negative reaction from Total. Total said that it may revisit its decision to convert its La Mede refinery from petroleum to renewable diesel.
Reuters reports that the “The legislation will remove palm oil from a list of permitted biofuels from January 2020 and eliminate related tax advantages.” Overall, Total’s investments in conversio of the La Mede site to renewable diesel have added up to more than 300 million Euros. The court said the action on palm was justified “considering the strong growth of palm oil production and the major amount of land used for its production worldwide, and given the deforestation and drying out of peat bogs”.
Category: Fuels
