ePure sues European Commission over FuelEU Maritime Regulation for ignoring crop-based biofuels

In Belgium, European renewable ethanol producers have launched a legal challenge to the EU’s FuelEU Maritime Regulation on the grounds that it fails to properly recognize the proven benefits of sustainable crop-based biofuels and has therefore violated several key EU legislative procedures.

Companies representing nearly all of the EU’s production of renewable ethanol are seeking to annul a section of the legislation that considers crop-based biofuels to have the same emission factors as the least favorable fossil fuel pathway. As a result of that provision, the FuelEU Maritime Regulation de facto excludes Renewable Energy Directive (RED)-compliant crop-based biofuels from the decarbonization objectives of the maritime sector.