The European Union has been accused of killing off the prospect of cheap energy from shale gas by trying to impose with expensive and “reckless” regulation of fracking. The European Parliament on Wednesday voted for new EU laws requiring that exploration for potential deposits of shale gas to face the same environmental regulation as a full-scale oil drilling. Struan Stevenson, a Conservative MEP who sits on the European Parliament's environment committee, warned that the plan could strangle the nascent fracking industry in Britain. --Bruno Waterfield, The Daily Telegraph [pay site], 10 October 2013
Many Europeans complain about their high energy costs, largely due to their increasing dependence on renewables — the most costly energy sources. But European political parties as well as a majority of people still want government to promote costly options, especially wind and solar power. This is killing European economies. Many businesses under pressure are likely move to a lower-cost location, and jobs will go with them. Antonio Tajani, European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, warned: “We face a systemic industrial massacre.” --Jim Powell, Forbes, 19 September 2013
Germany will threaten jobs and hamper growth if it persists with expanding renewable energy at the current pace, a chemical industry lobby said. Continuing with uncapped subsidies to renewable developers and removing aid for companies that use a lot of energy risks 211 billion euros ($285 billion) in gross domestic product and 1.3 million jobs by 2030 compared with a slower renewable expansion and greater use of natural gas, the Verband der Chemischen Industrie said, citing a new IHS Inc. study it commissioned. “The current course of the energy switch is extremely dangerous for Germany, the land of industry,” Karl-Ludwig Kley, president of the VCI, told reporters today in Berlin. “The charges of the energy switch can decide over profit or loss, growth or decline, survival or collapse.” --Business Week, 9 October 2013
The average household energy bill in Britain is now £1,300 a year, twice what it was 10 years ago and shale gas exploitation is regarded as crucial to pushing prices down. Alessandro Torello, of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers, said the MEPs’ rules would create a costly and cumbersome regulatory process that would make industry think twice about exploration. --Bruno Waterfield, The Daily Telegraph, 10 October 2013
Coal-fired power stations [in Britain] would be consigned to the fringes of the energy market under a plan being drawn up by the coalition to head off a potential defeat over its energy bill in the House of Lords. Ministers fear a rebellion this month by Liberal Democrat peers demanding a 2030 decarbonisation target for the electricity sector – something the government has rejected. In an attempt to quell the uprising, senior coalition figures are proposing a compromise involving tougher restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions from old coal-fired power stations. --Jim Pickard, Financial Times, 10 October 2013
Ed Miliband has said David Cameron has "no answer" to Labour's pledge to freeze energy prices if it wins power, as the two clashed in the Commons. The Labour leader said bills had risen by £300 since 2010 and yet the prime minister was still backing "the energy companies not the consumer". But Mr Cameron called the proposed freeze a "gimmick not a policy". He suggested Mr Miliband wanted to live in a "Marxist universe" where the state could control market prices. --BBC News, 9 October 2013
Prime Minister Questions took a strangely philosophical turn today when Graham Jones, a Labour backbencher, asked the Prime Minister point blank: "Why is market intervention in… mortgages OK, but market intervention in the energy market is not?" This is the corner the Conservatives find themselves painted into: pro Help to Buy on the one hand, anti Ed Miliband's energy price freeze on the other. Despite saying Labour's energy policy "struck a chord" on Monday, today Mr Cameron dismissed it roundly. "I know he wants to live in a Marxist universe. He needs a basic lesson in economics," said the PM. In response, Red Ed said his opponent was "floundering" over the cost of living. The truth is that, yes, he is a bit. --Will Heaven, The Daily Telegraph, 9 October 2013
SSE has picked a fight with ministers after claiming that it has been forced to raise gas and electricity prices by 8.2 per cent to help to pay for government environmental levies. SSE said that levies to pay for low-carbon generation and energy efficiency had risen sharply. Will Morris, the SSE group managing director, said: “For a typical dual-fuel energy customer, these schemes now cost more than three times what they did in 2005 ... They are what some would call stealth taxes, many of which were introduced by the very same politicians now so outraged by rising prices.” Politicians had failed to tell consumers about the cost of green energy policy, Mr Morris said. --Susan Thompson, The Times, 10 October 2013
Some 30 years ago I was Secretary of State for Energy. In those far-off days the purpose of energy policy was to ensure a reliable supply of energy, for business and households alike, at the lowest possible cost. No longer. The Energy Bill now before Parliament is the worst energy bill within living memory. Its sole purpose is to enable the UK to reach the ambitious decarbonisation targets enshrined in Labour’s Climate Change Act. The malign effect of the Energy Bill, if enacted and implemented in its present form, will be to lock us into binding long-term contracts for high-cost nuclear and (even more) renewable energy, leaving little or no space for much cheaper shale gas. --Nigel Lawson, The House Magazine, 27 September 2013
