Regulators pose threat to EU green energy and industry

[FBaggins]

On Wednesday, the European Commission is expected to announce its investigation into Germany's management of subsidies as it executes its Energiewende, or move from fossil fuel and nuclear to renewable power. Some 2,300 German heavy energy users, including chemical and steel firms such as BASF and ThyssenKrupp, have been exempt from a green surcharge ordinary consumers have to pay. The Commission, the EU executive, is examining whether the exemptions of around 5 billion euros ($6.87 billion) per year were unfair and should be paid back. A 51-page letter from the Commission to the German government seen by Reuters spells out concerns that the waiver was unlawful state aid.

...snip...

HALT TO THE ENERGIEWENDE?

The final outcome of the investigation might be benign. Germany could be cleared or just asked to meet certain conditions in order to fall in line with EU rules. But the enquiry alone into one of the most sophisticated green energy laws could shatter investor confidence across Europe in renewable energy, such as solar and wind, and it could drag on for months or even years.

Doerte Fouquet, a Brussels-based lawyer at Becker Buettner Held, said the implications went far beyond the industry waiver, which the new German government would tackle. "The problem is that with such a state aid investigation decision, the whole renewable energy system may break down. This could immediately affect running projects," she said.

...snip...

The European Renewable Energies Federation (EREF), which represents green energy, urged the Commission to think again. "With an opening of a full investigation procedure, the German Energiewende would come to a halt with immediate effect," Rainer Hinrichs-Rahlwes, EREF president, wrote in a letter to the European Commission.

These games need to stop. Carbon-free generation almost necessarily involves societal support that is "anti-competitive" if it's only compared to nations that are burning fossil fuels. The EU needs to end such childishness - and yes, that includes nations that prefer specific types of carbon-free generation over others and want to use their political muscle to influence other nation's preferences. Those energies should instead be turned to cutting fossil generation in the nations that are more competitive because they aren't incenting cleaner generation.

[kristopher]

1. EU is investigating the subsidies UK is providing nuclear, not German green energy

This isn't a threat to "green energy" it's a threat to the energy intensive industries that Germany has graced with preferential electricity pricing. That is, rightly, an anticompetitive practice and a direct subsidy to those corporations.

EU to launch probe into British nuclear state aid next week - sources
BY FOO YUN CHEE AND KAROLIN SCHAPS
BRUSSELS/LONDON Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:37pm GMT


(Reuters) - The European Commission will open an investigation next week into planned British support for a new nuclear power plant, three people familiar with the matter said, in a precedent-setting case for future nuclear funding in Europe.

...Britain is the first European member state to request approval for government support for nuclear power. The Commission's verdict is expected to determine how other states regulate nuclear support in future.

...The British government in October agreed commercial terms with EDF for the firm to build a nuclear plant at Hinkley Point expected to cost 16 billion pounds ($26.2 billion).

...If the Commission refuses state aid approval, the Hinkley Point project could fail, threatening the British government's long-term energy and environmental plans which call for nuclear power.

"The project could not proceed," an EU diplomatic source said ...

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/12/uk-eu-britain-nuclear-idUKBRE9BB07B20131212

[FBaggins]

2. Is the EREF a pro-nuclear source?

Read it again:

"With an opening of a full investigation procedure, the German Energiewende would come to a halt with immediate effect"

Sure sounds like the green energy folks consider it a threat to green energy.