Argentina’s new biofuels law gets stuck in Senate
In Argentina, La Gaceta reports the new biofuels law was again put on hold in the Senate. The lack of consensus on the role that small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) of biodiesel will have prevented the necessary votes to be gathered to advance with the treatment of the project presented by Patricia Bullrich “and others” and resulted in the suspension of the meeting of Parliamentary Work and the session scheduled for this Thursday.
The main point of conflict is not related to the increase in mixing percentages, but to how the biodiesel market will be distributed and what participation small and medium-sized companies will have in the face of large integrated companies (they concentrate the entire value chain). The opinion establishes that non-integrated SMEs (purchase their inputs to produce biodiesel, such as oil) will maintain a protected share to supply the domestic market, although that quota will be gradually reduced until 2036. The remaining volume will be allocated through open tenders.
That scheme generated questions between companies in the sector and legislators from producing provinces, who demand greater quotas for SMEs thinking about the continuity of that segment. The differences ended up impacting the parliamentary discussion and left the ruling party without the certainty of having the votes to approve the project as established in the opinion, the newspaper “Profile” consigned.
According to a parliamentary source, the suspension of the session responded to the need to continue the talks and seek a text that meets more consensus. “The session is adjourned to agree on the articles to be modified,” explained a parliamentary source, referring to the negotiations that took place around the points questioned. “There will be no change in the points related to the market for sugar cane bioethanol and corn,” he added.
Category: Policy
