The European Union's economic problems mean the bloc should be more flexible in the way it promotes a low-carbon economy and should broaden the focus of its energy policy beyond purely reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to ensuring that energy will remain affordable, the EU's energy chief said. Mr. Oettinger's comments signal a shift in the EU's clean-energy strategy, with a bigger focus on keeping down costs to preserve the competitiveness of the bloc's economy. In 2007, when the EU set its last binding targets for 2020 for greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable energy and efficiency, it focused almost exclusively on climate protection, Mr. Oettinger said. --Jan Hromadko,
The Wall Street Journal, 10 April 2013
The EU’s chief scientific advisor has said that evidence allows the go-ahead for extracting shale gas, the energy source at the centre of a European policy tug-of-war. Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has adopted a less favourable tone on shale gas, believing its extraction in Europe bears little comparison with the United States. But Anne Glover, the chief scientific adviser to Commission President José Manuel Barroso, contradicted this view and gave a scientific green light to shale. --
EurActiv, 11 April 2013
A crucial vote on Tuesday (16 April) in Strasbourg could determine the fate of the European Union 's struggling Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). The proposal, put forward in July, was intended to be a quick short-term fix to the price slump while more long-term solutions are developed. But it has encountered unexpected resistance. About half the member states support the proposal, but Poland and others are vehemently opposed. With elections coming up in September, Germany has not yet taken a position. --Dave Keating,
European Voice, 11 April 2013
Europe is falling dangerously far behind the US in productivity growth and is blighted by crippling energy costs, the pan-EU industry federation has warned. “Europe doesn’t have an energy policy. It has a climate policy,” said Markus Beyrer, head of BusinessEurope. Mr Beyrer said the US is running away with the shale energy revolution, leaving Europe’s companies in the dust. Spot gas prices are now four to five times higher in Europe, with grim implications for the chemical industry. --Ambrose Evans-Pritchard,
The Daily Telegraph, 10 April 2013
Angela Merkel is attempting the biggest transition to renewable energy of any developed country in history. The chancellor’s Energiewende, or energy switch, is one of her biggest gambles in eight years in office. Merkel’s subsidies to renewable-energy producers are fueling runaway electricity costs and posing a threat to the stagnant German economy. Consumers pay for the subsidies through a surcharge on their bills. The fee had surged 47 percent on Jan. 1 from a year earlier. In three years, it had more than doubled. Merkel’s main opponent in the election, Peer Steinbrueck of the Social Democratic Party, is capitalizing on discontent with the energy switch. “Merkel is showing poor leadership on energy policy, and that could hurt her in the September elections,” says Carsten Nickel, a London-based analyst at Eurasia Group, a political- risk research and consulting firm. --Stefan Nicola,
Bloomberg, 10 April 2013
Russia’s oil exports could plunge in the coming decades as the U.S. ramps up output of shale oil, a group of government-linked experts said, in an unusually frank admission that the North American energy boom poses a threat to Russia’s hydrocarbon-fueled economy. --James Marson,
The Wall Street Journal, 10 April 2013
Which source of renewable energy is most important to the European Union? Solar power, perhaps? Or wind? The answer is neither. By far the largest so-called renewable fuel used in Europe is wood. Drax, one of Europe’s largest coal-fired power stations, said it would convert three of its six boilers to burn wood. It could be getting £550m a year in subsidies for biomass after 2016—more than its 2012 pretax profit of £190m. With incentives like these, European firms are scouring the Earth for wood. --
The Economist, 6 April 2013
