[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Britain unveils nuclear energy expansion plans
Mon Nov 9, 2009 2:15pm EST
By Daniel Fineren
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain set out plans Monday to speed up the planning process for big wind farms and new nuclear power plants and named 10 sites where reactors could be built.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said new nuclear plants, combined with cleaner coal plants and more renewable energy, would help Britain to secure its energy supplies and cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
About 20 percent of Britain's electricity was generated from existing nuclear power reactors in the second quarter of 2009, but all except one of them is due to shut by 2025.
Previous attempts to build new nuclear plants have been delayed by the exhaustive planning process. It took six years and cost 30 millions pounds ($50.33 million) to secure planning consent to build the Sizewell B reactor in southern England.
Under the new proposals, decisions on plants bigger than 50 megawatts, or 100 megawatts for offshore wind, will be cut to one year.
"The current planning system is a barrier to this shift (to low carbon)," Miliband said.
"It serves neither the interests of energy security, the interests of the low carbon transition, nor the interests of people living in areas where infrastructure may be built, for the planning process to take years to come to a decision."
The list of possible new nuclear power stations includes Kirksanton, a site in Cumbria, northern England, proposed by German utility RWE which is not close to any existing nuclear facilities and overlaps a small wind farm.
The government rejected EDF Energy's Dungeness power station on the south coast of England as a possible site for new reactors because of environmental and flooding concerns.
But it approved EDF sites at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk where the French energy giant plans to build four reactors.
"It means we can prepare to take the next steps in our plan for a multi-billion pound investment in the UK," EDF Energy Chief Executive Vincent de Rivaz said in a statement.
"It is in the public interest for the UK to build at least 15 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity which would be sufficient to meet at least 30 percent of our electricity demand by 2030."
Britain currently has about 11 GW of nuclear power plants.
EDF plans to get its first new reactor in Britain running by the end of 2017, but said the multi-billion pound new build program remained subject to the "right investment framework being in place."
Ten of the 11 sites which had been proposed by some of Europe's biggest utilities for building new nuclear power plants are next to existing atomic installations.
But they want significant and long-term charges on rival climate-warming power plants to support their multi-billion pound investments in low-carbon nuclear because current carbon emissions prices are not high enough.
Miliband told journalists Monday there would be no "specific" public subsidy for nuclear. A stronger carbon price would support nuclear and renewable energy development over dirtier coal plants.
THREE SITES
Three other sites, at Kingsnorth, southern England and Owston Ferry and Druridge Bay, both in northeast England, may be suitable for new nuclear plants to be built after 2025, Miliband said.
The opposition Conservative Party, expected to win an election due by June 2010, said the announcement had come 10 years too late to replace existing capacity before it closes.
"What we have heard...is a declaration of a national emergency for our energy security," Conservative energy spokesman Greg Clark told parliament. "Why did they leave it so late to act?"
The Trades Union Congress, an umbrella body which represents Britain's unions, said the new nuclear plants and other energy measures would create up to half a million jobs at a time of fragile economic recovery.
"It will create many new job opportunities and a more streamlined planning process will avoid lengthy delays," said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber.
The government also announced plans to fund the development of new technology to capture climate-warming carbon from coal fired plants.
For reaction to the energy proposals, click on
(Writing by Peter Griffiths, editing by Anthony Barker and Sue Thomas)
[Green Business]
Poland sells surplus carbon permits to Spain
Mon Nov 9, 2009 2:18pm EST
WARSAW (Reuters) - Warsaw signed an agreement on Monday to sell its surplus carbon emission permits under the Kyoto Protocol (AAUs) worth 25 million euros ($37.5 million) to Madrid, Polish and Spanish prime ministers said on Monday.
Earlier in November Warsaw said it would sign its first such deal and that more were to follow since it had some 500 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent to sell under the global climate pact.
"Today we also sign a very important, unprecedented agreement for Poland, on the sales of emission permits," Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a joint conference with his Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Tusk and Zapatero spoke after bilateral government's consultations in Poland's northern city of Sopot, which also encompassed European Union affairs and a proposal to enhance the bloc's security forces.
They also recalled the fall of the Berlin Wall as world leaders gather in Berlin 20 years after the unification of Germany which marked the symbolic end of communism in central and eastern Europe.
(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska)
[Green Business]
EPA C02 endangerment finding to White House
Mon Nov 9, 2009 2:23pm EST
By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has sent its final proposal on whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to human health and welfare to the White House for review, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told Reuters on Monday.
The EPA's final finding, if it follows the agency's earlier assessment and is approved by the Office of Management and Budget, would allow the EPA to issue rules later to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, even if Congress fails to pass legislation to cut U.S. emissions of the heat-trapping gases that contribute to global warming.
"We sent the final proposal over to OMB on Friday," Jackson said in an interview at her EPA headquarters' office.
She said the OMB has up to 90 days to review the proposal, but the EPA would like a quicker timetable.
"We've briefed them a couple of times. So we're hoping for an expedited review," Jackson said.
Along with its final endangerment finding, the EPA also sent to OMB the agency's final finding on whether cars and trucks "cause or contribute to that pollution," Jackson said.
Such a finding would allow the federal government to regulate tailpipe emissions by increasing vehicle mileage requirement.
Jackson said the government is facing a "hard deadline" of next March to let automakers know of any required increases in fuel economy standards that would affect vehicles built for the 2012 model year.
She said the EPA received more than 300,000 comments on its initial proposed public health endangerment and vehicle pollution findings that were issued last April.
(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Lisa Shumaker)
[Green Business]
Trading Emissions, Leaf in merger talks
Mon Nov 9, 2009 2:42pm EST
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Trading Emissions and Leaf Clean Energy are in early merger talks in a move that would create the largest carbon-focused company listed in London.
Any deal would likely be in shares and constitute a reverse takeover of investment company Leaf, but the valuation basis has yet to be agreed, the two firms said in a joint statement on Monday.
"There can be no certainty that an offer will be made for either Trading Emissions or Leaf nor certainty as to the terms of any such offer, if made," they said.
The announcement comes a week after JP Morgan completed its takeover of Trading Emissions' smaller peer EcoSecurities.
Trading Emissions specialises in renewable energy projects and emissions trading instruments, and its portfolio of risk-adjusted carbon credits stood at 53.2 million Certified Emissions Reduction Credits (CERs) as at October 1.
Its shares were up 0.8 percent at 100 pence at 1525 GMT, valuing it at 254 million pounds ($426 million). Shares in AIM-listed Leaf were indicated up 3.6 percent, giving it a market cap of about 177 million pounds.
The companies said that upon completion of the merger, Leaf would apply for its shares to be listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Paul Sandle)
($1=.5960 Pound
[Green Business]
Britain unveils nuclear energy expansion plans
Mon Nov 9, 2009 2:15pm EST
By Daniel Fineren
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain set out plans Monday to speed up the planning process for big wind farms and new nuclear power plants and named 10 sites where reactors could be built.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said new nuclear plants, combined with cleaner coal plants and more renewable energy, would help Britain to secure its energy supplies and cut its greenhouse gas emissions.
About 20 percent of Britain's electricity was generated from existing nuclear power reactors in the second quarter of 2009, but all except one of them is due to shut by 2025.
Previous attempts to build new nuclear plants have been delayed by the exhaustive planning process. It took six years and cost 30 millions pounds ($50.33 million) to secure planning consent to build the Sizewell B reactor in southern England.
Under the new proposals, decisions on plants bigger than 50 megawatts, or 100 megawatts for offshore wind, will be cut to one year.
"The current planning system is a barrier to this shift (to low carbon)," Miliband said.
"It serves neither the interests of energy security, the interests of the low carbon transition, nor the interests of people living in areas where infrastructure may be built, for the planning process to take years to come to a decision."
The list of possible new nuclear power stations includes Kirksanton, a site in Cumbria, northern England, proposed by German utility RWE which is not close to any existing nuclear facilities and overlaps a small wind farm.
The government rejected EDF Energy's Dungeness power station on the south coast of England as a possible site for new reactors because of environmental and flooding concerns.
But it approved EDF sites at Hinkley Point in Somerset and Sizewell in Suffolk where the French energy giant plans to build four reactors.
"It means we can prepare to take the next steps in our plan for a multi-billion pound investment in the UK," EDF Energy Chief Executive Vincent de Rivaz said in a statement.
"It is in the public interest for the UK to build at least 15 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity which would be sufficient to meet at least 30 percent of our electricity demand by 2030."
Britain currently has about 11 GW of nuclear power plants.
EDF plans to get its first new reactor in Britain running by the end of 2017, but said the multi-billion pound new build program remained subject to the "right investment framework being in place."
Ten of the 11 sites which had been proposed by some of Europe's biggest utilities for building new nuclear power plants are next to existing atomic installations.
But they want significant and long-term charges on rival climate-warming power plants to support their multi-billion pound investments in low-carbon nuclear because current carbon emissions prices are not high enough.
Miliband told journalists Monday there would be no "specific" public subsidy for nuclear. A stronger carbon price would support nuclear and renewable energy development over dirtier coal plants.
THREE SITES
Three other sites, at Kingsnorth, southern England and Owston Ferry and Druridge Bay, both in northeast England, may be suitable for new nuclear plants to be built after 2025, Miliband said.
The opposition Conservative Party, expected to win an election due by June 2010, said the announcement had come 10 years too late to replace existing capacity before it closes.
"What we have heard...is a declaration of a national emergency for our energy security," Conservative energy spokesman Greg Clark told parliament. "Why did they leave it so late to act?"
The Trades Union Congress, an umbrella body which represents Britain's unions, said the new nuclear plants and other energy measures would create up to half a million jobs at a time of fragile economic recovery.
"It will create many new job opportunities and a more streamlined planning process will avoid lengthy delays," said TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber.
The government also announced plans to fund the development of new technology to capture climate-warming carbon from coal fired plants.
For reaction to the energy proposals, click on
(Writing by Peter Griffiths, editing by Anthony Barker and Sue Thomas)
[Green Business]
Poland sells surplus carbon permits to Spain
Mon Nov 9, 2009 2:18pm EST
WARSAW (Reuters) - Warsaw signed an agreement on Monday to sell its surplus carbon emission permits under the Kyoto Protocol (AAUs) worth 25 million euros ($37.5 million) to Madrid, Polish and Spanish prime ministers said on Monday.
Earlier in November Warsaw said it would sign its first such deal and that more were to follow since it had some 500 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent to sell under the global climate pact.
"Today we also sign a very important, unprecedented agreement for Poland, on the sales of emission permits," Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a joint conference with his Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Tusk and Zapatero spoke after bilateral government's consultations in Poland's northern city of Sopot, which also encompassed European Union affairs and a proposal to enhance the bloc's security forces.
They also recalled the fall of the Berlin Wall as world leaders gather in Berlin 20 years after the unification of Germany which marked the symbolic end of communism in central and eastern Europe.
(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska)
[Green Business]
EPA C02 endangerment finding to White House
Mon Nov 9, 2009 2:23pm EST
By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has sent its final proposal on whether carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to human health and welfare to the White House for review, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told Reuters on Monday.
The EPA's final finding, if it follows the agency's earlier assessment and is approved by the Office of Management and Budget, would allow the EPA to issue rules later to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, even if Congress fails to pass legislation to cut U.S. emissions of the heat-trapping gases that contribute to global warming.
"We sent the final proposal over to OMB on Friday," Jackson said in an interview at her EPA headquarters' office.
She said the OMB has up to 90 days to review the proposal, but the EPA would like a quicker timetable.
"We've briefed them a couple of times. So we're hoping for an expedited review," Jackson said.
Along with its final endangerment finding, the EPA also sent to OMB the agency's final finding on whether cars and trucks "cause or contribute to that pollution," Jackson said.
Such a finding would allow the federal government to regulate tailpipe emissions by increasing vehicle mileage requirement.
Jackson said the government is facing a "hard deadline" of next March to let automakers know of any required increases in fuel economy standards that would affect vehicles built for the 2012 model year.
She said the EPA received more than 300,000 comments on its initial proposed public health endangerment and vehicle pollution findings that were issued last April.
(Reporting by Tom Doggett; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Lisa Shumaker)
[Green Business]
Trading Emissions, Leaf in merger talks
Mon Nov 9, 2009 2:42pm EST
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Trading Emissions and Leaf Clean Energy are in early merger talks in a move that would create the largest carbon-focused company listed in London.
Any deal would likely be in shares and constitute a reverse takeover of investment company Leaf, but the valuation basis has yet to be agreed, the two firms said in a joint statement on Monday.
"There can be no certainty that an offer will be made for either Trading Emissions or Leaf nor certainty as to the terms of any such offer, if made," they said.
The announcement comes a week after JP Morgan completed its takeover of Trading Emissions' smaller peer EcoSecurities.
Trading Emissions specialises in renewable energy projects and emissions trading instruments, and its portfolio of risk-adjusted carbon credits stood at 53.2 million Certified Emissions Reduction Credits (CERs) as at October 1.
Its shares were up 0.8 percent at 100 pence at 1525 GMT, valuing it at 254 million pounds ($426 million). Shares in AIM-listed Leaf were indicated up 3.6 percent, giving it a market cap of about 177 million pounds.
The companies said that upon completion of the merger, Leaf would apply for its shares to be listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Paul Sandle)
($1=.5960 Pound
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