Millions have paid their fuel suppliers

Martynas Nageviius

More recently, despite the fact that Lithuania’s Renewable Energy Law does not allow the trading of biofuels and unadulterated biofuels in the country, changing the carbon footprint of fuel consumption, fuel suppliers are finding a way to represent the fuel rejected at the price of pure oil. fuel.

This simply requires that the diesel production be stored in the state reserve, and the state reserve keep the diesel for sale at gas stations for at least three years without exchanging it for biofuels. Although most of the petroleum product storage facilities in Lithuania, including the largest Subaius petroleum storage facility, have all the necessary equipment to mix petroleum diesel with biofuels. Simply put, oil suppliers with oil in reserve no longer follow the Renewable Energy Law, but instead follow the State Petroleum Products and Petroleum Stock Act, which does not state that stored petroleum products should not be mixed with biofuel when sold in the market,.

Such tricks from fuel suppliers, as described below, have led to a situation that would require Lithuania to bear additional budgetary expenditures, costing millions of euros, in order not to achieve the goal of the EU Renewable Energy Directive. Not to mention the fact that instead of adding value to the Lithuanian economy by producing biofuels from local countries, we are increasing oil imports to Russia.

Lithuania at the tail of the EU stream:

In mid-October, the European Commission (EC) released a Renewable Energy Development Progress Report, which assessed the EU as a whole to meet its 2020 renewable energy development targets.

Both Lithuania and other EU countries have two directive obligations:

– achieve a different share of renewable energy sources in the country’s total final energy consumption, which is different for each country;

– Achieve a 10% share of renewable energies in total final energy consumption only in the transport sector.

With the first task, Lithuania is managing it successfully, and has achieved this mainly by substituting biofuels in the district heating sector. Here, Lithuania even exceeded its targets and sold the target surplus to Luxembourg through statistical transfers. The funds received from Luxembourg are now planned to finance renewable communities in Lithuania.

In terms of the share of renewable energy in the transport sector, Lithuania has lagged behind the EU for the last decade. In 2008, Lithuania was the current sixth EU member state in terms of share of renewable energy in the transport sector, 10th in 2009, 12th in 2012, 19th in 2015, 20th in 2017 and 23rd in 2018 site By 2020, we are in real jeopardy from last 27th place.

So far, the Ministries of Energy, Transport and Environment have assured them that almost all EU countries will not reach 10% of renewable energy in the transport sector, so it is unlikely that the EC will comply with the target of the penalty.

However, the October EC report predicts that the share of renewables in the transport sector will reach 12.2% of the EU average, with the aim that a share of 10% of renewables in the transport sector undoubtedly exceeds 16 of the 27 EU countries. Of the remaining 11, three more, including our neighboring Poland, are on the brink, and the longest lag in the minimum target, which is a quarter of what countries have committed to achieving, is projected for Cyprus, Luxembourg and .. Lithuania.

These countries first approached the EC, recommending not to wait for sanctions from the Commission, but to start negotiations with countries that exceed the targets set by the EU for the purchase of statistical transfers.

As a result, the next government will have to raise an additional € 1 million in a budget deficit for the purchase of statistical transfers to EU countries, which has exceeded its targets for the share of renewable energy in the transport sector. And here it seems that we can pay more than we receive by selling the total renewable surplus to Luxembourg, since the supply of statistical transfers in the transport sector is lower. The largest surpluses in the transport sector will occur in the Scandinavian countries Sweden, Finland, as well as in the Netherlands, Portugal, Malta, Germany, France and Croatia. It is with the governments of the EU countries that we have to start negotiations on the purchase of statistical transmission.

The delay is due to insufficient biofuel mixing

What happened? Why is Lithuania not fulfilling its role as a renewable energy sector?

Yes, Lithuania has relatively much fewer electric cars that use electricity produced from renewable energy sources than the European countries of yesterday. This is not surprising, because so far in Lithuania, unlike many other EU countries, there has been no incentive to buy an electric car. So far, all the efforts of the Lithuanian government have been focused only on changing the price of diesel fuel, setting the lowest possible excise duty on diesel fuel, and encouraging buyers or users of electric cars only by means of symbolically cheaper parking or the right to drive buses. There were no financial incentives for them in Lithuania until this year.

Municipalities were not encouraged to replace diesel buses with electric buses or buses that run on biogas. Regarding biogas, neither its production nor its consumption in transport was promoted in any way in Lithuania. All incentives are only on paper plans, an alternative fuel construction project. It is not surprising that the number of biogas vehicles in Lithuania is exactly zero.

However, the lag for various purposes was still formed by nothing less than the insufficient mix of biofuels biofuels sold in Lithuania, 89% of the renewable resources used in the transport sector in the EU are biofuels mixed with diesel and gasoline. Therefore, any reduction in the sales of biofuel blends is an important factor in reducing the share of renewables in the transport sector.

In Lithuania, until a year after a long debate, the Seimas did not adopt an amendment to the Renewable Energy Law, the sale of gasoline was twice less than that allowed by the automobile regulations, bioethanol.

Ydingas trij minister sakymas

At the beginning of this article, the cunning of fuel suppliers was already mentioned without the purchase of diesel biofuel, we supply the market not directly to the refinery, but with their support in the state reserve.

But that is not all. Until the spring of this year, no biodiesel sold in Lithuania was sold for half a year. This was done for several years in a row, according to the order of the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Transport signed in 2012, despite the fact that the Lithuanian Renewable Energy Law did not foresee any fuel supplier and stated that fuel suppliers they must mix biofuels that ensures good fuel quality in both summer and summer. And those biofuels have always been on the market.

Apparently, the situation would continue for a long time if Seimas member Simonas Gentvilas had not appealed to the Administrative Court of the Government of Lithuania, which annulled three ministerial orders in March, contrary to the law. Unfortunately, for the first three months in Lithuania, fuel suppliers sold diesel without biofuel. Unlike the Scandinavian countries that have been fulfilling all the objectives of the EU directive for several years.

In the autumn of this year, AB Orlen Lietuva approached the members of the Seimas, requesting the abolition of the obligation to mix biofuels in Lithuania during the cold season. The increase is based on the argument that high-quality biofuels suitable for blending fuel increase the price of diesel by a fraction of a cent.

Orlen Lietuva does not calculate the alternative payment for statistical transfers without replacement of biofuel, fully understanding that these funds will be collected by the taxpayer and not included in the price of diesel. And it is important for the company that diesel is as cheap as possible and that its consumption in Lithuania is not visible. Despite no Lithuanian national interest. And despite the de facto million, the professor paid euros.

The author of the comment is Martynas Nageviius, President of the Lithuanian Renewable Energy Confederation.

The opinion of the author does not necessarily coincide with the position of the editor.

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