The General Court of the European Union this week moved to dismiss a challenge against the ReFuelEU Aviation regulations brought by European biofuel producers ePURE and Pannonia Bio which asserted the EU’s sustainable aviation fuel regulation improperly discriminates against crop-based biofuels. The court ruled they did not have the right to bring the challenge.

The Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, U.S. Grains Council, and LanzaJet joined together last May to intervene in support of the European biofuel interests. But because the underlying challenge was dismissed, the objections to the EU regulation raised by the U.S. groups were not considered by the court.

In a joint statement, the organizations expressed disappointment in the decision and “strongly disagree with its finding that biofuel producers in the EU and United States—who manufacture the renewable fuels that become SAF—are somehow not harmed or affected by the EU’s unfair and unscientific SAF requirements.”

By essentially banning crop-based SAF from qualifying, the ReFuelEU Aviation regulation harms ethanol and SAF producers around the world by denying them access to an emerging low-carbon fuel market. And, because commercial aviation is a global marketplace, the EU regulations also have extraterritorial effects on operations outside of Europe.