Govt to appeal High Court solar ruling on 13 January
January 6, 2012 at 17:53 Leave a comment
6 January 2012 (Friends of the Earth)
The Court of Appeal will hear the Government’s challenge to last month’s High Court ruling that its solar cuts are illegal on Friday [13 January 2012].
The move follows a High Court ruling that the Government’s plans to rush through sudden cuts to solar payments were illegal, following a legal challenge by Friends of the Earth and two solar firms, Solarcentury and HomeSun.
The hearing will be “rolled-up” so that the application for permission to appeal and the appeal itself will be held on the same day.
Friends of the Earth’s Policy and Campaigns Director Craig Bennett said:
“Ministers’ insistence on continuing with the appeal process will simply add to the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the solar industry – and the thousands of jobs at stake.
“Instead of wasting taxpayers’ money fighting this in the courts, Ministers should take steps to safeguard thousands of solar jobs and enable more homes, businesses and communities to plug in to clean energy.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
1. The High Court said that proposals to cut payments for any solar scheme completed after 12 December – 11 days before the official consultation closed – were unlawful. A working transcript of the court proceedings is available from Friends of the Earth’s press office – 020 7566 1649.
2. Photographs of a Friends of the Earth’s action outside the High Court last month – featuring a solar panel in a dustbin and two solar installers – areavailable for free.
3. At the High Court the judge refused permission to appeal, given that it would have no realistic prospect of success.
4. On Monday 31 October 2011 the Government launched a public consultation that would see the amount of solar panels installed each year fall by between 50 and 95 per cent.
5. The Government’s proposals have already had a devastating impact. Countless planned clean energy schemes have been abandoned and thousands of jobs are under threat. In December construction firm Carillion warned 4,500 workers their jobs were at risk because of the Government’s proposals. The Government’s decision to slash solar funding was described by the CBI as an ‘own goal’ in November. Examples of solar energy projects that have either been scrapped or are in jeopardy are available from Friends of the Earth’s press office – please call 020 7566 1649/ 07712 843 209 for more information.
6. In November last year research by Element Energy, commissioned by Friends of the Earth and the solar industry, showed that the premature cuts could threaten 29,000 jobs and lose the Treasury up to £230 million a year in tax income. It showed that additional costs to lift the cap off the scheme will be more than equalled by extra tax receipts to the exchequer and saving on unemployment benefit that would have been paid to sacked solar fittershttp://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/element_energy_summary.pdf.
7. Calculations by Friends of the Earth and Element Energy suggest that the Treasury receives from the solar industry at least £330m per year in income taxes, corporation tax, and VAT. Friends of the Earth’s calculations also reveal that any additional costs over budget that result from restoring the cut-off date to April, as well as allowing for moderate growth in the solar industry over the next three years at lower tariff rates, could be paid for by using this tax income – not increasing the costs to consumers.
8. Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to:
• Establish a system which enables feed-in tariff payments to fall from mid February 2012, in line with the falling cost of solar technology, in a way that supports the continued growth of the industry and jobs;
• Increase the overall budget for feed-in tariffs using tax revenues generated by jobs created by the scheme – this will enable more households to benefit from solar power.
• Exclude housing association, school, council and other community projects from the damaging proposal to give multi-building projects even lower financial support.
• Only require solar projects on homes to install loft and cavity wall insulation where possible – rather than imposing much tougher energy efficiency conditions which would make 9 out of 10 householders ineligible for the scheme.
9. The feed-in tariff scheme has led to the installation of more than 100,000 solar panel projects since its introduction in April 2010 and created around 27,000 new jobs, the majority of which are now under threat.
10. Friends of the Earth’s legal challenge to cuts in solar incentives is part of its Final Demand campaign, which calls for energy we can all afford and a public inquiry into the power and influence of the Big Six energy companies. Find out more at www.foe.co.uk/finaldemand.
11. Almost 20,000 people have asked the Government to keep supporting clean British energy – join them now at www.foe.co.uk/finaldemand.
12. More than 200 organisations, including community groups, councils, business organisations, solar companies and NGOs have signed a statement calling on the Government to re-think its plans.http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/fd_joint_statement1.pdf.
see also
FEED-IN TARIFF APPEAL: STATEMENT BY DECC SPOKESPERSON
4 JANUARY 2012 (DECC website)
On the FITs appeal, A DECC spokesperson said:
“We have lodged grounds of appeal with the Court of Appeal. We hope that permission will be granted for an appeal and that we can secure a hearing as soon as possible so that we can provide clarity for consumers and industry on the way forward following the consultation.
“The High Court’s decision was based on the view that the proposed approach to implementing new tariffs for solar PV is inconsistent with the FIT scheme’s statutory purpose of encouraging small-scale low-carbon electricity generation.
“We disagree with this for a number of reasons. The overriding aim of the proposed reduction in tariffs for solar PV (as set out in the recent consultation) is to ensure that over the long term as many people as possible are encouraged to install small scale low-carbon generation (including other technologies as well as solar PV) and benefit from the funding available for the FIT scheme. Without an urgent reduction in the current tariffs, which give a very generous return, the budget for the scheme would be severely depleted and there would be very little available for future solar PV generators, or for other technologies. Our view is that the urgent steps we have proposed to protect the scheme for the future are fully consistent with the scheme’s statutory purpose.
We have also made the point that the judicial review was premature as no decision has yet been taken, and a decision will only be taken after a full analysis of the responses to the consultation.”
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/fits_appeal/fits_appeal.aspx
and
UK government grounds of appeal on solar subsidy court ruling
Solar subsidy confusion continues as government appeals against ruling
Industry remains in dark over feed-in tariff rates after climate minister Greg Barker confirms appeal against high court ruling
Guardian 3.1.2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jan/03/solar-subsidy-confusion-government-appeal
and much more on solar PV and Feed In Tariffs on the Guardian’s website at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/feed-in-tariffs
and earlier
Government to appeal solar subsidy case
By Bryan Johnston
Wednesday, 04 January 2012
The government is to appeal a High Court ruling against its plans to slash Feed-in Tariff (FiT) subsidy rates for small-scale solar power installations.
In the High Court last month, Mr Justice Mitting ruled that the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) proposal to reduce payments for solar schemes completed after 12 December – 11 days before a consultation into the proposals ended – was unlawful. Under the plans, the FiT rate for the smallest solar installations would be cut from 43.3p to 21p per kilowatt-hour.
DECC has now confirmed that the department will ask the Court of Appeal to overturn the High Court verdict. It has until 4pm today to lodge its grounds of appeal.
Campaign group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has urged ministers to drop the legal action.
Head of campaigns Andrew Pendleton said: “Trying to appeal the High Court’s ruling is an expensive waste of taxpayers’ money. The court said the government has no realistic chance of winning, and it will prolong uncertainty among solar companies just when they need reassurance”.
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