Senior members of the German government have warned EU member states that German car makers could scale back or scrap production plans in their countries unless they support weakened carbon emissions rules, according to diplomatic sources. Germany has stepped up the pressure on them to water down limits on vehicle emissions to protect the country’s mighty car industry, particularly luxury makers such as BMW and Daimler. The sources added that some calls warning EU member states of possible consequences have come from members of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office. --Paul Milligan,
Daily Mail, 19 June 2013
Large German companies such as Siemens and Bosch are abandoning the solar industry. Their strategies resulted in debacles – their investments in solar power companies cost them billions. Compared to what investors have lost as a result of their investments in solar stocks, however, these sums are almost negligible amounts. The former stars at the stock exchange, SolarWorld and Q-Cells, have destroyed tens of billions of capital. --Thiemo Heeg,
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 18 June 2013
Electricity prices in Britain may be almost double those in Germany within three years due largely to the impact of a new tax aimed at supporting renewable power generation, a report by bank Credit Suisse has claimed. The bank’s analysis showed wholesale prices, which form the backbone of energy bills, would top those in Germany by 85pc in 2016-17 and would be higher in general for the next seven to 10 years. The bank blamed the roughly fivefold rise in the government’s new tax on carbon-dioxide emitting power generation over the next seven years, while also pointing to Britain’s lack of infrastructure to import power from the European mainland. --
The Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2013
I do not blame my noble friend the Minister in the slightest for the fact that this is the worst Energy Bill in living memory and, indeed, probably the worst Bill of any kind that the present Government have brought forward. That may to some extent explain why it is so enthusiastically welcomed by the party opposite. It has, as the Minister made clear, one purpose and one purpose only: to reach the very demanding—that is an understatement—and radical decarbonisation targets in the Climate Change Act, which, as she rightly said, is something on which no other country has embarked. She seemed to think that was a good thing. In my opinion, it is just because no other country is so stupid. --Nigel Lawson,
House of Lords, 18 June 2013
In the Energy Bill going through Parliament there is allowance for generous subsidy for a huge push towards burning wood to produce electricity. It’s already happening. Drax power station in Yorkshire has converted one of its boilers to burn wood pellets instead of coal; soon three of its six boilers will be doing this and the power station will then be receiving north of half a billion pounds a year in subsidy. By 2020, the Government estimates, up to 11 per cent of our generating capacity will be from burning wood. This is a really bad idea. It will cost a fortune, worsen air pollution, exacerbate dependency on foreign energy and increase greenhouse gas emissions compared with burning gas and maybe even with burning coal. All these are in direct contradiction of the Energy Bill’s ostensible purpose. Yet “biomass” is trumpeted as a key part of the Government’s strategy to keep the lights on and combat climate change. --Matt Ridley,
The Times, 20 June 2013
