06/03/2012 (TEMPO Interactive) - The government and national palm oil industries are ready to respond to the negative environmental campaign allegedly conducted by the US. “We will be sending our written response this week,” Fadhil Hasan, chairman if the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki), to TEMPO on Sunday.

Gapki, according to Fadhil, will send a statement pointing out the mistakes in the calculation made by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The data used by EPA contained flaws and the model used for the research was different from the Indonesian standards, Fadhil said. “We believe the argument will be accepted by the United States, which is usually more open to differing opinions,” said the chairman.

The EPA on Jan. 27 issued a notification on fuel from renewable sources. In the notification, palm-oil based biodiesel fuel produced in Indonesia was considered to have not met the standards for renewable energy.