{"id":14140,"date":"2006-05-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-05-18T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bio-based.eu\/news\/index.php?startid=20060519-05n"},"modified":"2006-05-19T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2006-05-18T22:00:00","slug":"france-villepin-pins-hopes-on-biofuels-to-face-oil-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/france-villepin-pins-hopes-on-biofuels-to-face-oil-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"France: Villepin pins hopes on biofuels to face “oil crisis”"},"content":{"rendered":"

New measures aim at increasing the blending of biofuels in cars to 10% per volume by 2015, French PM Dominique de Villepin announced. The measure is part of a wide-ranging energy policy review.<\/b> (Related: Biofuels for transport<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Background:<\/b><\/p>\n

The European Union has set itself a target of increasing the use of biofuels in energy consumption to 5.75% by 2010. <\/p>\n

In view of higher oil prices and the urgency of a new debate on security of energy supply, the Commission presented a Biomass Action Plan<\/a> in December 2005 (EurActiv 9 Dec 2005<\/a>). In February 2006, it followed up with a new Communication “An EU strategy for biofuels<\/a>” preparing the ground for a review of the biofuels directive by the end of 2006, which might include mandatory targets instead of the indicative ones set in 2003.<\/p>\n

Issues:<\/b><\/p>\n

Dominique de Villepin on 15 May announced new measures to boost the use of biofuels in vehicles and reduce the country’s rising oil bill on its way to a “post-oil” era.<\/p>\n

Villepin’s key measure is to increase the blending of biofuels with conventional oil to 10% per volume by 2015, an objective which is “twice as much as European objectives,” according to the French PM. Public procurements to build 16 new biomass-based factories were launched in 2005, representing a total investment of 2 billion euros, he announced. <\/p>\n

Villepin’s objective is to ensure that, “by the end of the decade” every French citizen can buy a vehicle able to run on high biofuels blends. He said the vehicles would either be petrol cars which can run on “nearly pure” ethanol or diesel cars which can integrate “high blends” of biofuels.<\/p>\n

In this context, Villepin said he wanted to see a genuine network of “green refuelling stations”, saying these are already a reality in Brazil and Sweden.<\/p>\n

An action plan will be presented “by the summer” which will bring together car manufacturers, oil distributors, farmers and consumers, he announced.<\/p>\n

Other measures include:<\/p>\n