just had this, good news Press release: Tar sands oil - MEPs reject plans to ease way for tar sands oil
Press release –
Brussels, 3 December 2014
Tar sands oil
MEPs reject plans to ease way for tar sands oil
The
European Parliament's environment committee today voted to reject new
fuel quality rules proposed by the EU Commission, which failed to
include
a separate methodology for assessing greenhouse gas emissions from tar
sands oil (1). After the vote, Green climate change spokesperson
Bas Eickhout, who co-sponsored the rejection, said:
"Tar
sands oil should not and cannot be part of the European fuel mix. The
production of oil from tar sands is not only dirty and damaging
to the environment, it also has a far greater impact on climate change
than conventional oil. If the EU is serious about combatting climate
change, it needs to be consistent with all its policies.
"In
voting for this rejection, MEPs have voted against easing the way for
tar sands oil to enter the European market. Despite the spin, tar
sands oil has nothing to do with European energy security but is
instead merely about placating the Canadian government in the context of
the EU-Canada trade agreement. We do not need this highly-polluting
fuel and we should not be encouraging its production.
"The
bigger picture is the future of the fuel quality directive itself. It
was one of the 5 legislative measures adopted by the EU at the
end of 2008 as part of its climate and energy package and is a crucial
piece of legislation that should deliver actual emissions reductions for
2020 and beyond. Today's vote should be seen as the basis for providing
a robust methodology for EU fuel quality
rules beyond 2020."
(1)
Under the EU's fuel quality directive, suppliers are obliged to reduce
the lifecycle greenhouse gas intensity of transport fuel 6% by 2020
(compared to 2010). Originally, the idea was to have separate default
values for calculating the lifecycle emissions of different sources of
fossil fuels, so oil from tar sands would have its own greenhouse gas
intensity value, separate to conventional oil.
However, earlier this year, the Commission came out with a new
proposal, with no separate method for tar sands oil. This would
essentially make it much easier for increasing the share of oil from tar
sands on the European market.
Today's vote by the environment committee must now be confirmed by the European Parliament plenary as a whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment