The European Parliament's environment committee voted to amend a bill which would require oil companies to cut emissions from oil's "life cycle" -- from the ground to a car's exhaust -- by 10 percent from 2011-2020.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - New European Union rules forcing oil companies to cut greenhouse gas emissions from fuel should be made more flexible and include criteria to ensure plant-based fuels are eco-friendly, lawmakers said on Tuesday.
The European Parliament's environment committee voted to amend a bill which would require oil companies to cut emissions from oil's "life cycle" -- from the ground to a car's exhaust -- by 10 percent from 2011-2020.
The amended bill would require companies to reduce emissions by at least 2 percent every two years from 2012, which lawmakers said would give more flexibility than the European Commission's proposal of 1 percent per year from 2011.
It also said biofuels that were used to meet the greenhouse gas targets must meet "production sustainability criteria" to make sure they were truly environmentally friendly.
!ADVERTISEMENT!The committee supported the proposal that diesel may have no more than 10 mg/kg of sulfur from January 1, 2009, while it moved up the date for sulfur content in gas oil or heating oil to be cut to 10 mg/kg for non-road vehicles and inland waterway vessels to December 31, 2009 from December 31, 2011.
The committee also voted to reduce polluting polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PACS) in diesel to a tighter standard than that proposed by the Commission.
The Commission, the EU's executive branch, published the rules earlier this year. They would require oil companies to cut emissions from drilling, refining, transporting and burning fuel and are seen as an integral part of EU efforts to fight climate change. The Commission says the move would reduce emissions by 500 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2020.
When the proposal came out it drew criticism from the European Petroleum Industry Association (Europia), which represents refiners such as Total, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell.
The bill must be voted on by the full parliament, which can make further changes, and then be approved by EU governments before it can become law.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; editing by James Jukwey)
