Oettinger Proposal No Immediate Problem

I just had a chance to read the new Communication by the EU Commission on energy published yesterday.

As anticipated, there are some parts addressing renewable energy support schemes such as the wildly successful German Law on Priority for Renewable Energy.

However, at this time the Commission does not propose to get rid of that successful policy and replace it with a much less effective renewable portfolio standard.

All it says is that the Commission intends to provide “guidance” some time next year on how to effectively implement support schemes. The “Action Plan” says that will happen between the second and third quarter of 2013 (point 20 on the table at page 20 of the document).

There is nothing wrong with that. We will see what the result of this exercise is. That will be the time to discuss it.

I personally would not object to getting a renewable portfolio standard at the EU level, as long as it is clear that Member States are free to keep their own support schemes as well.

In contrast to my impression, Hans-Josef Fell, the Green Member of Parliament that wrote the Law on Priority of Renewable Energy, is afraid that the Commission intends to abolish the German support scheme.

That may be true. But right now, there is no such proposal in sight. So this is no immediate problem. We will see what happens later.