There was growing speculation last night that the Government is on the verge of cutting multibillion-pound financial incentives to build [onshore] wind farms. It is believed that the Government could cut so-called ROC incentives for green energy projects as a means of keeping a lid on rising power prices. --Robert Lea,
The Times, 19 October 2011
Spain’s Industry Ministry has upset the country’s burgeoning wind power sector by announcing that it intends to slash subsidies by 40 percent. The draft royal decree on feed-in tariffs for wind energy which is currently being debated in parliament is endangering €12.7 billion of investments in Spain planned for the period up to 2020, says the AEE. --
Reve News, 20 October 2011
The European Union is for the first time clearly questioning whether it should press ahead with long-term plans to cut greenhouse-gas emissions if other countries don't follow suit, in what could herald a significant policy shift for a region that has been at the forefront of advocating action to combat climate change. The document is unambiguous about the risks if Europe acts alone. "It has to be seen clearly that there are risks associated to unilateral EU action," the commission says in its draft. "There is a trade-off between climate-change policies and competitiveness. Europe cannot act alone in an effort to achieve global decarbonization," the paper says. --Alessandro Torello ,
The Wall Street Journal, 18 October 2011
Japan is reconsidering plans to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 25% by 2020 due to a rethinking of its energy future, and the country is worried that it is spending too much on carbon-credit programs, a senior government official said on Wednesday. "Japan's wealth has been draining out" due to buying carbon credits from East European countries and China, Mr. Nobutani said. METI estimates Japan has paid as much as ¥800 billion ($10.4 billion) to buy 400 million metric tons of carbon credits. --Mari Itawa,
The Wall Street Journal, 19 October 2011
Confirmation that Britain’s flagship carbon capture and storage project at the Longannet power station in Fife will not proceed was greeted with dismay by environmentalists on Wednesday. Four years ago the government proposed to fund all the cost of the successful CCS project, but last year the Treasury capped its contribution at £1bn. Companies in the competition estimated a working plant would cost at least £1.5bn, and possibly much more. --Andrew Bolger,
Financial Times, 20 October 2011
The government's flagship electricity market reforms (EMR) will not be finalised for more than 12 months, prompting calls for the coalition to fast-track legislation that is regarded as critical to efforts to drive £200bn of energy infrastructure investment by the end of the decade. Chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Committee Tim Yeo MP issued a statement voicing his concerns over the apparent delay to the flagship energy legislation. --James, Murray,
BusinessGreen, 19 October 2011
Contrary to the Energy Secretary's position, higher fossil fuel prices cannot explain our current very high energy bills. And, contrary to the energy companies, they are not merely passing on the extra wholesale costs of energy. Maybe the Huhne green agenda, involving huge subsidies to wind generation, which end up on all our fuel bills, is much larger than we've been told. --Andrew Neil,
BBC News, 19 October 2011
The European sovereign debt crisis that's spread from Greece to Italy and is roiling the region's banks now has another potential victim: energy policy. The economic slowdown is adding to carbon-permit supply as manufacturers and generators sell allowances not needed by idle factories and power plants. “The thing that will most kill renewable development is low carbon prices,” said James Cox, an analyst at energy consultant Poyry in Oxford. “If the Eurozone crisis continues, that will lead to an extremely low carbon price and it makes it difficult to invest in low-carbon generation.” --
Bloomberg, 10 October 2011
