Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

The European Commission came on 29 July 2013 with an official statement denying any plan to " encourage or make state aid for nuclear power easier ." This statement comes after several allusions to such projects in the press. Read the full statement here .

A lot has been said and written on the Keystone pipeline multi-phase project  which transports oil sand bitumen between Alberta, Canada, to the United States and ultimately to the Gulf Coast Area near Houston. The currently debated phases awaiting approval concern phases III and IV of the project (so-called " Keystone XL proposal "). Phases I and II are completed. Here follows a transcript of President Obama interview with the New York Times (NYT) realised on 24 July 2013, where he addressed the issue and summed up his last stance on the issue (underlinings are mine):

France's Court of Auditors has released on 25 July 2013 a report assessing the national policy in the field of promotion of renewable energies .  The conclusions (in French) of the report are available on the website of the Court . A comment in English of the report will be shortly posted on this blog. Hereafter follow the 8 recommendations of the Court in their original version: •    mettre en place un dispositif centralisé du suivi statistique permettant de donner toute la visibilité requise pour éclairer les décisions, notamment en matière de connaissance des coûts de production par filière, des emplois et des marchés ; •    simplifier le régime juridique applicable à la production d’énergies renouvelables (géothermie, éolien terrestre) ; •    mettre en œuvre une planification et une cartographie des énergies renouvelables en tenant compte des contraintes de raccordement aux réseaux électriques ; •   ...

As expected (see previous post ), the European Commission has concluded its assessment of Germany's state support to energy-intensive industries facing an alleged risk of carbon leakage in two state aid decisions , both released on 17 July 2013 (press release, IP/13/704 ). In the first decision, the Commission concludes positively, but not in the second one. From a procedural point of view, it should be reminded that a Member State cannot put into effect a scheme which has been notified under state aid rules to the Commission until the latter has approved it. Positive decision on 2013 national carbon leakage scheme In the first decision, the Commission assessed Germany's scheme for the compensation of CO 2 costs in favour of energy-intensive industries as reflected in their electricity price, i.e. so-called carbon leakage. The European executive concludes that the scheme is in line with the harmonised methodology defined in the EU state aid guidelines adopted in t...

The news came on 14 July that the European Commission is considering launching legal proceeding against Germany's Renewable Energies Act ( so-called EEG , founding act of the German energy transition,  Energiwende ). The information was originally released by Der Spiegel .  DG Competition services have apparently concluded, after scrutiny of the German legislation for renewables, that some of the legal provisions providing for exemptions from charges levied on electricity consumers with the purpose of financing RES generation support ( EEG levy , grid fees ) may breach EU competition law ( Der Spiegel , "Unfair Competition? EU Takes on German Green Energy Law" , 15.07.2013). Some 3,200 companies have applied for an exemption to the EEG levy in 2012. (See also previous article in Der Spiegel , "War on Subsidies: Brussels Questions German Energy Revolution" , 29.05.2013.) According to Der Spiegel , the Commission will launch on Wednesday 17 July proc...