(The Star) French energy group Total said a move by lawmakers to exclude palm oil from raw materials approved for use in biofuel would put at risk its La Mede facility in southern France.
French lawmakers last month voted to remove palm oil from the country’s biofuel scheme as of 2020, following longstanding controversy about the environmental impact of the crop that is mainly produced in Asia.
Total last year won the approval of the government to use palm oil to supply its former crude oil refinery at La Mede, which it is converting into a biofuel production site.
The company pledged that palm oil would account for less than half of raw material used, with French rapeseed crops and recycled oil also being used, but the plans caused uproar among environmental activists and farmers.
“I hope lawmakers, who voted this amendment during the night at the end of December without realising the consequences, will revert to a more reasonable position,” Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne told French daily Le Figaro.
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Pouyanne said criticism of deforestation caused by palm oil plantations was excessive given that it took up less land than other oilseed crops, and that he supported the use of palm oil certified as sustainable. READ MORE