[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Markus Wacket
BERLIN
Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:20am EST
Germany aims to delay solar incentive cuts: sources say
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen wants to delay his proposed 15-percent cuts in solar power incentives by one month until May 1 rather than April 1, government sources told Reuters on Friday.
Roettgen has faced criticism from within his own party, with regional leaders urging him to delay or water down his proposed 15-percent cut in the incentives that utilities are obligated by law to pay producers of solar power.
Solar power companies in Germany, where about half of the world's photovoltaic energy is produced and fed into the grid, have also complained about Roettgen's proposed cuts. They said they are too steep, too fast and will kill jobs.
The government sources also told Reuters that further cuts after 2011 could be steeper than Roettgen is now planning.
If there are more than 3,500 megawatts of solar power capacity added within one year the cuts would sink 3.5 percent in the following year instead of 2.5 percent now planned.
A spokeswoman for the Environment Ministry declined to comment on the Reuters report. She said members of parliament were now discussing Roettgen's proposal.
The sources also said the proposal to push back the 15-percent cut by one month had been agreed in consultation with leaders of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Bavaria sister party, the Christian Social Union.
The government sources said Roettgen was still seeking backing from the Free Democrats, junior coalition partners, for his proposal to cut the incentives called feed-in tariffs (FIT) that have helped make Germany a world leader in solar power.
The sources said the plans to reform the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will be discussed in a cabinet meeting in two weeks.
(Reporting by Markus Wacket; writing by Erik Kirschbaum)
[Green Business]
Michael Hogan
BERLIN
Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:21am EST
German biodiesel plants face closure on low sales
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's biodiesel industry expects to operate at around 50 percent of capacity in 2010 as taxes are making the green fuel too expensive for motorists, a biofuels industry leader said on Friday.
Germany's 4.8 million tonne annual capacity biodiesel industry, Europe's largest, is estimated to have produced about 2.5 million tonnes in 2009, down from 2.7 million tonnes in 2008, said Elmar Baumann, chief executive of German biofuels industry association VBO.
"We expect the same level of capacity use in 2010," Baumann told Reuters. "The industry is facing a dramatically poor outlook, we will be facing more consolidation in the coming year with more plants being taken out of the market."
About half of the 49 German biodiesel plants were not working at all and many of the operational plants were producing well under capacity, he said.
"Industrial plants like this need 75 percent capacity use to remain viable, we cannot continue at this level in the long-term."
Germany's government, elected in September 2009, initially said it would review green fuel taxes to stimulate biofuel sales but later said it would only freeze taxes, not cut them.
"This will not be enough to simulate the B100 (petrol station) market," Baumann said. "Sales of B100 fell sharply in 2009 and the tax freeze will not be enough to create an improvement in 2010."
The VDO estimates sales of pure biodiesel at petrol stations fell to around 200,000 tonnes in 2009, sharply down from about 1.1 million tonnes in 2008 and a peak of 1.8 million tonnes in 2007 before taxes reduced the price attraction of biodiesel.
The VDO continues to lobby the government for a cut in taxes to revive petrol station sales but this year the main industry production will be focused on production for the blending market.
Germany's government has also scaled back the level of biofuels which must be blended with fossil fuels under the country's plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 6.25 percent in 2010, down from its previous plan for 6.75 percent biofuel content.
With petrol station sales down so dramatically, blending sales were now the critical market for biodiesel, said Baumann.
Oil companies did not want to deal with small biodiesel deliveries on road transport tankers but large consignments by train or inland waterways tankers, Baumann said.
"This means biodiesel producers without a river or canal link or a railway siding find great difficulty in making blending sales," Baumann said. "The future of such plants will be in question."
(Editing by Sue Thomas)
[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:23am EST
U.S. government to reduce its emissions 28 percent by 2020
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday the U.S. government would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 28 percent by 2020 as the result of an executive order he issued to set the example on fighting climate change.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason)
[Green Business]
Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO
Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:02am EST
Sri Lanka police raid losing candidate's office
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police raided the office of losing presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka on Friday, an aide said, two days after troops had surrounded him inside a hotel on suspicion he was plotting a coup.
Fonseka lost Tuesday's election to incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa by 1.8 million votes, after a bruising campaign with personal attacks by both, who last May stood together in victory over the Tamil Tiger separatists after a 25-year war.
"The police Special Task Force broke into the office of Sarath Fonseka," aide Asanka Magedara told Reuters.
A Reuters journalist saw police commandos outside Fonseka's office. Police spokesman I.M. Karunaratne said he had heard of a raid but could not immediately confirm it.
Also on Friday, JVP legislator Vijitha Herath said police arrested Chandana Sirimalwatte, editor of the Lanka newspaper. The paper is seen as favoring the JVP, a Marxist party which joined other opposition parties to back Fonseka.
Karunaratne, the police spokesman, said he had no official statement.
On Wednesday, soldiers surrounded the luxury hotel where Fonseka and other opposition leaders went after polling finished and vote counting was proceeding.
The former army commander, a hero to many in the Indian Ocean nation, said he feared arrest but later walked out a free man. The military said it had gone there to arrest army deserters with him that may have been plotting a coup.
MARKET TO SHRUG OFF
The political fracas was unlikely to roil the Colombo Stock Exchange, which hit a record high on Thursday after Rajapaksa's re-election. It was one of 2009's best performers with a 125 percent return.
"There won't be any impact on the equity market or the economy in the short term," a Sri Lankan financial analyst told Reuters. "Investors think there is a stable government and they only think about their returns."
It was closed for a Buddhist holiday on Friday.
However, the analyst said there could be damage to the economy if the international community intervened. Fonseka has vowed to challenge the election results in court, but few expect that case to make much headway.
Local and international observers generally praised the election's conduct, but condemned campaign violence, abuse of state resources and state media and urged investigation of election complaints. Five people were killed before the vote.
An observer mission from the 54-nation Commonwealth on Friday praised the work of the electoral commission, but said Sri Lanka "will not fully meet key benchmarks for democratic elections" until the panel was allowed sufficient independence to enforce election laws.
"There is a compromised pre-election environment, including (an) election management body unable to fully ensure respect for the rule of law; a failure of some state institutions to respect legal provisions...and incidences of violence," it said in a statement.
Immediately after the war ended in May, Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya, a former army officer who is the defense secretary, began to suspect Fonseka might attempt a coup.
So the president promoted him to the newly created job of chief of defense staff, which in effect sidelined Fonseka because he had no control of troops. Fonseka said those were two of the reasons he retired to enter the race in November.
(Additional reporting by Shihar Aneez and Andrew Caballero-Reynolds; Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Ron Popeski)
[Green Business]
Markus Wacket
BERLIN
Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:20am EST
Germany aims to delay solar incentive cuts: sources say
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen wants to delay his proposed 15-percent cuts in solar power incentives by one month until May 1 rather than April 1, government sources told Reuters on Friday.
Roettgen has faced criticism from within his own party, with regional leaders urging him to delay or water down his proposed 15-percent cut in the incentives that utilities are obligated by law to pay producers of solar power.
Solar power companies in Germany, where about half of the world's photovoltaic energy is produced and fed into the grid, have also complained about Roettgen's proposed cuts. They said they are too steep, too fast and will kill jobs.
The government sources also told Reuters that further cuts after 2011 could be steeper than Roettgen is now planning.
If there are more than 3,500 megawatts of solar power capacity added within one year the cuts would sink 3.5 percent in the following year instead of 2.5 percent now planned.
A spokeswoman for the Environment Ministry declined to comment on the Reuters report. She said members of parliament were now discussing Roettgen's proposal.
The sources also said the proposal to push back the 15-percent cut by one month had been agreed in consultation with leaders of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats and their Bavaria sister party, the Christian Social Union.
The government sources said Roettgen was still seeking backing from the Free Democrats, junior coalition partners, for his proposal to cut the incentives called feed-in tariffs (FIT) that have helped make Germany a world leader in solar power.
The sources said the plans to reform the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) will be discussed in a cabinet meeting in two weeks.
(Reporting by Markus Wacket; writing by Erik Kirschbaum)
[Green Business]
Michael Hogan
BERLIN
Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:21am EST
German biodiesel plants face closure on low sales
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's biodiesel industry expects to operate at around 50 percent of capacity in 2010 as taxes are making the green fuel too expensive for motorists, a biofuels industry leader said on Friday.
Germany's 4.8 million tonne annual capacity biodiesel industry, Europe's largest, is estimated to have produced about 2.5 million tonnes in 2009, down from 2.7 million tonnes in 2008, said Elmar Baumann, chief executive of German biofuels industry association VBO.
"We expect the same level of capacity use in 2010," Baumann told Reuters. "The industry is facing a dramatically poor outlook, we will be facing more consolidation in the coming year with more plants being taken out of the market."
About half of the 49 German biodiesel plants were not working at all and many of the operational plants were producing well under capacity, he said.
"Industrial plants like this need 75 percent capacity use to remain viable, we cannot continue at this level in the long-term."
Germany's government, elected in September 2009, initially said it would review green fuel taxes to stimulate biofuel sales but later said it would only freeze taxes, not cut them.
"This will not be enough to simulate the B100 (petrol station) market," Baumann said. "Sales of B100 fell sharply in 2009 and the tax freeze will not be enough to create an improvement in 2010."
The VDO estimates sales of pure biodiesel at petrol stations fell to around 200,000 tonnes in 2009, sharply down from about 1.1 million tonnes in 2008 and a peak of 1.8 million tonnes in 2007 before taxes reduced the price attraction of biodiesel.
The VDO continues to lobby the government for a cut in taxes to revive petrol station sales but this year the main industry production will be focused on production for the blending market.
Germany's government has also scaled back the level of biofuels which must be blended with fossil fuels under the country's plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 6.25 percent in 2010, down from its previous plan for 6.75 percent biofuel content.
With petrol station sales down so dramatically, blending sales were now the critical market for biodiesel, said Baumann.
Oil companies did not want to deal with small biodiesel deliveries on road transport tankers but large consignments by train or inland waterways tankers, Baumann said.
"This means biodiesel producers without a river or canal link or a railway siding find great difficulty in making blending sales," Baumann said. "The future of such plants will be in question."
(Editing by Sue Thomas)
[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:23am EST
U.S. government to reduce its emissions 28 percent by 2020
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday the U.S. government would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 28 percent by 2020 as the result of an executive order he issued to set the example on fighting climate change.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason)
[Green Business]
Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO
Fri Jan 29, 2010 10:02am EST
Sri Lanka police raid losing candidate's office
COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lankan police raided the office of losing presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka on Friday, an aide said, two days after troops had surrounded him inside a hotel on suspicion he was plotting a coup.
Fonseka lost Tuesday's election to incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa by 1.8 million votes, after a bruising campaign with personal attacks by both, who last May stood together in victory over the Tamil Tiger separatists after a 25-year war.
"The police Special Task Force broke into the office of Sarath Fonseka," aide Asanka Magedara told Reuters.
A Reuters journalist saw police commandos outside Fonseka's office. Police spokesman I.M. Karunaratne said he had heard of a raid but could not immediately confirm it.
Also on Friday, JVP legislator Vijitha Herath said police arrested Chandana Sirimalwatte, editor of the Lanka newspaper. The paper is seen as favoring the JVP, a Marxist party which joined other opposition parties to back Fonseka.
Karunaratne, the police spokesman, said he had no official statement.
On Wednesday, soldiers surrounded the luxury hotel where Fonseka and other opposition leaders went after polling finished and vote counting was proceeding.
The former army commander, a hero to many in the Indian Ocean nation, said he feared arrest but later walked out a free man. The military said it had gone there to arrest army deserters with him that may have been plotting a coup.
MARKET TO SHRUG OFF
The political fracas was unlikely to roil the Colombo Stock Exchange, which hit a record high on Thursday after Rajapaksa's re-election. It was one of 2009's best performers with a 125 percent return.
"There won't be any impact on the equity market or the economy in the short term," a Sri Lankan financial analyst told Reuters. "Investors think there is a stable government and they only think about their returns."
It was closed for a Buddhist holiday on Friday.
However, the analyst said there could be damage to the economy if the international community intervened. Fonseka has vowed to challenge the election results in court, but few expect that case to make much headway.
Local and international observers generally praised the election's conduct, but condemned campaign violence, abuse of state resources and state media and urged investigation of election complaints. Five people were killed before the vote.
An observer mission from the 54-nation Commonwealth on Friday praised the work of the electoral commission, but said Sri Lanka "will not fully meet key benchmarks for democratic elections" until the panel was allowed sufficient independence to enforce election laws.
"There is a compromised pre-election environment, including (an) election management body unable to fully ensure respect for the rule of law; a failure of some state institutions to respect legal provisions...and incidences of violence," it said in a statement.
Immediately after the war ended in May, Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya, a former army officer who is the defense secretary, began to suspect Fonseka might attempt a coup.
So the president promoted him to the newly created job of chief of defense staff, which in effect sidelined Fonseka because he had no control of troops. Fonseka said those were two of the reasons he retired to enter the race in November.
(Additional reporting by Shihar Aneez and Andrew Caballero-Reynolds; Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Ron Popeski)
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