BIOMASS INTEL

James Kanter of the New York Times’ Green Inc. reports that environmental lawyers and activists sued the European Commission for failing to release studies investigating the impact of biofuels on the environment.

The move comes just weeks after a leaked report suggests that the Commission may be classifying dense palm oil plantations as “forest” to allow companies to conceal an alteration of the vegetation, and in turn to retain their sustainability credentials.

European policy was “inventing an artificial market worth billions” and there was a “responsibility to ensure its environmental objectives are achieved,” the activists wrote in an application to the second highest tribunal in the European Union, the General Court, at the European Court of Justice.

The groups – ClientEarth, Transport & Environment, European Environmental Bureau, and BirdLife International – said in their complaint that the commission was “withholding time-sensitive and critical environmental information necessary for meaningful public participation in biofuel policy-making.”

The court, which is based in Luxembourg, will now review the filing for completeness for several days before serving the complaint on the commission, according to Tim Grabiel, a staff attorney at ClientEarth, a nonprofit law firm with offices in London, Paris and Brussels.

A copy of the complaint is available here (PDF) for download.

More on the story here.