Sustainable Energy Law Notebook

On 19 March 2015 , the European Council reached conclusions on the strategy for the Energy Union , newly presented by the European Commission on 25 February 2015  (see previous post and comments ). The text is a broad endorsement of the general policy lines contained in the strategy, with a slightly re-arranged priority order.

Below follows the part of the Conclusions dedicated to Energy Union as adopted by the heads of State and Government at the European Council on 19 March 2014 :  

In a recent decision adopted by the Council on 2 March 2015 , the United Kingdom has been authorised to apply reduced levels of taxation on gas oil and unleaded petrol which are supplied as motor fuel to road vehicles .   The measure, proposed by the UK, examined by the European Commission and backed by the Council, aims to restore the balance for local fuels consumers faced with higher prices than the rest of the UK consumers . As explained in the decision, " the price difference is due to additional per unit costs induced by the geographic location of those areas, their low population numbers and the delivery of relatively low volumes of fuel ."   This decision is taken in accordance with the provisions of Article 19 of Directive 2003/96/EC on the taxation of energy products and electricity . Under that provision, certain criteria for the granting of exemption are set, such as conformity with the functioning of the internal market, the need to ensure fair comp...

  "Etter flere måneder med mye spekulasjoner, avveininger og forhandlinger la endelig EU-kommisjonen frem sin rammestrategi om energiunion 25. februar 2015. Mange forventet et visjonært verk. Det endte med en pragmatisk tiltakspakke som nå utgjør Kommisjonens arbeidsprogram for de fem neste årene. Selv om EØS/EFTA-landene ikke er omfattet av EUs felles energi- og klimapolitikk som sådan, er realiteten at den nye strategien er av stor betydning for Norge." Les hele min kommentar på Energi og Klima Nettmagasinet HER .

  The Louisiana State University (LSU) Journal of Energy Law & Resources is organising a conference on comparative offshore oil and gas law regimes between the United Kingdom, Norway and the United States . The conference will take place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA , on 12-13 March 2015 . It is structured around four topics : licensing systems , third party access to offshore infrastructure , license (lease) terms , and environmental, health and safety .   I am glad to be associated to this project and will be presenting the Norwegian licensing regime . See you in Baton Rouge?   More information on the event on the LSU website: http://www1.law.lsu.edu/cle/seminars/jelr/ And  brochure : http://host.law.lsu.edu/lsucle/15JELR.pdf    

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has released two interative maps based on the data collected from its atlases for potential CO 2 storage sites (CO 2 Atlases): one is an interative CO 2 Atlas, so-called "CO 2 FactMap" , check here ; the other one present general data and called "CO 2 StoryMap" , check here .

The specially appointed Commission on Productivity ( Produktivitetskommisjonen in Norwegian) has submitted its first report to the Norwegian Finance Minister on 10 February 2015 .   The first report looks at the basis for Growth and Welfare ( Produktivitet – grunnlag for vekst og velferd   , NOU 2015:1) and covers all sectors including petroleum and energy. The full document is available here (in Norwegian).   Website of the Productivity Commission: http://produktivitetskommisjonen.no/   A thorough comment of the Commission's report will be published on this blog in the coming days.