Climate_bridge

European Commission is preparing draft for new Energy Tax .

May 20, 2010

 The European Commission is working on a new draft for a long awaited Energy Tax that could help alieviate the looming debt crisis in some EU Member States . The draft will have two components: the first is an energy tax based on fuels’ energy content rather than their volume as is the case  now. The second is a carbon tax, which is being discussed in the range of 4 to 30 euros per tonne of carbon dioxide.  Carbon taxation is already used by Denmark, Sweden and Ireland, and Britain, Germany and the Netherlands have various eco-taxes. The new rules would be phased in between 2013 and 2018, laying down minimum rates of taxation for everything from coal, to heating oil to biodiesel. The EHA went to see the Commission on May 10 to inquire about the consequences for hydrogen, which will be minimal if the CO2 will be taxed at the point of use. The EHA informed the cabinet of  EU’s new taxation commissioner Algirdas Šemeta on the latest developments in hydrogen applications. The Commission is discussing the new draft on June 23. Recently the US National Academy of Sciences urged the government on May 19  to take drastic action to raise the cost of using [...]

...click here to read the full post
Coal_plants

EHA submits input to COWI study on the review of the SEVESO II Directive

May 15, 2010

EHA industry members acted swiftly to provide the EU Commission with detailed input on their operations to sustain the joint EHA/EIGA request to adapt the tresholds for onsite hydrogen storage in view of  hydrogen refeulling infrastructure requirements . The Commission is expecting to finalize the impact study of various proposed amendments to the Directive before the summer. The EHA in collaboration with EIGA has stepped up its monitoring of various EU policy proposals on hydrogen developments. The European Parliament’s environment committee on May 4 adopted  a proposal to recast the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive, which combines seven existing directives into a single directive on industrial emissions (IED). The proposal seeks to reinforce the implementation of the legislation, which obliges industrial installations to obtain permits from national authorities to release pollutants into the air, soil and water. MEPs strengthened the proposal by limiting the instances where public authorities can issue permits for installations that do not follow best available techniques (BATs). The Parliament did not however adopt an amendment suggested by the EHA to facilitate the authorisation of small hydrogen reformers in view of the development of the infrastructure for hydrogen as a clean energy vector. The proposal will be voted in [...]

...click here to read the full post
)): include (TEMPLATEPATH .