22/10/2012 (Jakarta Post) - Local officials, palm oil businessmen, environmental organizations and scientists are scheduled to meet a visiting delegation from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) next week, a move that may prove Indonesia’s claim that it has made the effort to meet green standards in expanding oil palm plantations and provide a new opportunity to tap into the world’s biggest energy market.

Indonesia, home to vast tropical rainforests covering an area of more than 100 million-hectares, has been considered a key determinant in the world’s battle against climate change and constantly under international scrutiny due to rapid deforestation and massive destruction of carbon-rich peatland, particularly caused by incremental expansion of oil palm plantations.

The latest case concerning the local palm oil industry came from the US, which notified at the end of January, that palm oil could not serve as an energy source under its renewable fuel standard program. Palm oil-based biodiesel cut green house emissions by only 17 percent compared to petroleum diesel fuel, which it is slated to replace, falling short of the 20 percent threshold required to qualify. Included in the assessment is the emission produced or cut in the entire process from palms to biodiesel.

The Trade Ministry’s director general for foreign trade, Deddy Saleh, said on Sunday that the visit would be important for the EPA to gather exact data and facts about the local palm oil industry, revising its assumptions that already led to “false conclusions” about palm oil production. He said in a statement that the government hoped that the US officials would see how the palm oil industry “brings livelihood to millions of people”.

A senior spokesman at the EPA said that the group had been invited and would visit Southeast Asia next week, but did not specify any further details, Reuters reported.

According to Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki), the EPA is scheduled to visit an oil palm plantation in Riau province to see the management of palm oil in peatland and hold talks with smallholders on Monday, and meet with local stakeholders on Tuesday.

The EPA’s visit came after Indonesia agreed to a US-led proposal, after long and difficult negotiations, to include 54 environmental goods in the list of products that will be subject to lower tariff caps by 2015 during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit last month.

The country accepted the deal as the US pledged to ease its barrier for the importation of the palm oil, although the commodity was not placed in the accepted list.

Gapki executive director Fadhil Hasan said that the new evidence found during the EPA delegation’s visit was expected to generate a favorable outcome for the country’s palm oil industry.

“At present, palm oil is used only as edible oil in the US. Whenever it is eligible in the renewable energy program, we will have a new opportunity to supply an alternative energy source in the country,” he said.

In its regulatory filing earlier this year, the EPA said that its carbon accounting for palm oil biofuel was based partly on the incremental expansion of oil palm oil plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia, which accounted for 90 percent of world’s palm oil supply.

To meet a projected 400 million gallons for the US by 2022, Indonesia and Malaysia would generate nearly 2 million tons of carbon dioxide annually over 30 years due to clearing peat swamps and forests