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15/05/2012 - Growing industry commitment to NGVs – Westport and Swagelok also request to join NGVA Europe’s Board of Directorsmore

30/04/2012 - EP plenary supports extension of tax benefits for natural gas and biomethane as a transport fuelmore

26/04/2012 - Linde, Bohlen & Doyen and Gasrec request to take seats on NGVA Europe’s Board of Directorsmore

28/03/2012 - Final GasHighWay Seminar in Brussels proved to be true successmore

13/03/2012 - Energy Taxation proposal strongly debated in parliament and changes requested - low taxes for the next 10 years, and up to 50% energy tax relief on Natural Gas from 2023 until 2030more

11/03/2012 - Green Gas Grids: NGVA europe participates in new EU project to boost the biomethane marketmore

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NGVA Europe opposes EC proposal on revision of the Energy Taxation Directive

On 13th April 2011, the European Commission released a proposal for a “Council Directive amending Directive 2003/96/EC restructuring the Community framework for the taxation of energy products and electricity” (COM/211/169). According to this proposal, the motor fuel tax shall be split between a CO2 based and an energy based component by introducing a minimum flat tax for all fuels to be implemented stepwise until 2018, now offering an option to the member states to postpone any tax increase to 2023. If accepted by the national member states this proposal would have disastrous consequences for the Natural Gas Vehicle (NGV) industry, including biogas being injected into the gas grid. The next table intend to compare the current situation with the proposed text.

Current situation:

Taxation_1

Proposed:

Taxation_proposal

This new proposal represents a tax increase of roughly 400 % for NG, while more or less maintaining the current tax level for petrol and slightly increasing for diesel and kerosene. Consequently this proposal would not only destroy the entire European NGV market, but would also be in conflict with the new White Paper on transport, published by the Commission on 28th March 2011, which clearly demands to grow out of oil. In this light, the current proposal would not only have negative consequences for the EU in its progress to achieve a diversified and low carbon based transport, and also improve air quality in big cities, but this imbalanced attempt would mean a manifestation of oil in transport for a long time.

In connection with this, NGVA Europe points out that the Heavy Duty sector only has Natural Gas as a “Current Low Carbon Fuel” as a replacement for diesel and with this transport sector producing the most CO2 emissions, it would be very critical to stop the development of new technology at this stage.

CO2_content_of_differnet_fuels

Conclusion: The above shown table compares the CO2 reduction potentials against petrol when looking at tailpipe emissions of different fuels. The mentioned NG figure of 29,2% gives the saving potential from the reference natural gas. In reality NG saves 24%-25% CO2 vs. petrol (considering the whole WTW cycle) and is therefore the cleanest alternative. This fact needs to be taken into account when talking about motor fuel taxation. A technology neutral approach would have to acknowledge this fact.

Source: NGVA Europe

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