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Showing posts from November, 2016

28th European Energy Law Seminar

The Dutch Energy Law Association announced today that the upcoming 28th round of the European Energy Law Seminar will be held on 23 and 24 January 2017 in Hampshire Hotel - Babylon The Hague, Netherlands. The European Energy Law Seminar is jointly organized by the Dutch Energy Law Association NEVER, the Groningen Centre of Energy Law and the Scandinavian Institute of Maritime Law, University of Oslo. The seminar brings together European energy law professionals and scholars with those from neighbouring countries, like Norway. It is an opportunity to keep up to date on latest EU energy law developments, gain insights into emerging issues and exchange experiences with colleagues.   The finalized programme and all further details will be available asap at the Association`s  website www.never.nl . Registration will be possible via that website.    

President Elect Donald Trump - Blackbox Energy?

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Slowly the dust is settling after a hard-fought campaign to become next President of the United States. Donald Trump won that race for the White House - but what will his energy and climate policies look like and is he able to implement his ideas? In this short piece some of the pillars of his climate and energy policies are assessed and their legal feasibility discussed.

Germany is fundamentally changing its Renewable Energy Law

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On 8 July 2016 resolved the German parliament Bundestag the EEG-Novelle 2017. This amendment to the German Renewable Energy Law ( Erneuerbare Energien Gesetz EEG ) introduces major changes to the current system. The main alterations are as follows.

Is UK shale gas policy about to change?

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Recent developments indicate that  implementation of   the UK –government`s pro-shale gas policy is being accelerated. In December2012 t he administration of then Prime Minister David Cameron decided to lift a pre-existing moratorium on shale gas extraction http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/wms_shale/wms_shale.aspx . As a reaction,  Scotland joined Northern Ireland in putting into place a moratorium on shale gas extraction. In England, however, shale gas extraction is encouraged by the executive. In order to overcome resistance of local councils towards one particular technical component of shale gas extraction, hydraulic fracturing or `fracking`, Whitehall put into place a number of tax-incentives.   Councils may, inter alia, keep 100 per cent (as opposed to the hithereto 50 per cent ) of business rates (in effect property taxes) that they collect from shale gas sites. [1] This right could be worth up to 1.7 million pound per year per site. [2] That move has been l