http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/20/eu-dropped-climate-policies-after-bp-threat-oil-industry-exodus
[links in on-line article]
EU dropped climate policies after BP threat of oil industry 'exodus'
Oil giant warned industry would pull out of EU if laws to cut pollution
and speed clean energy take up were passed, letter obtained by the
Guardian reveals
The EU abandoned or weakened key proposals for new environmental
protections after receiving a letter from a top BP executive which
warned of an exodus of the oil industry from Europe if the proposals
went ahead.
In the 10-page letter, the company predicted in 2013 that a mass
industry flight would result if laws to regulate tar sands, cut power
plant pollution and accelerate the uptake of renewable energy were
passed, because of the extra costs and red tape they allegedly entailed.
The measures “threaten to drive energy-intensive industries, such as
refining and petrochemicals, to relocate outside the EU with a
correspondingly detrimental impact on security of supply, jobs [and]
growth,” said the letter, which was obtained by the Guardian under
access to documents laws.
The missive to the EU’s energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, was
dated 9 August 2013, partly hand-written, and signed by a senior BP
representative whose name has been redacted.
It references a series of “interactions” between the two men – and
between BP and an unnamed third party in Washington DC – and welcomes
opportunities to further discuss energy issues in an “informal manner”.
BP’s warning of a fossil fuel pull-out from Europe was repeated three
times in the letter, most stridently over plans to mandate new pollution
cuts and clean technologies, under the industrial emissions directive.
This reform “has the potential to have a massively adverse economic
impact on the costs and competitiveness of European refining and
petrochemical industries, and trigger a further exodus outside the EU,”
the letter said.
The plant regulations eventually advanced by the commission would leave
Europe under a weaker pollution regime than China’s, according to
research by Greenpeace.
BP said any clampdown would cost industry many billions of euros and so
pollution curbs “should also be carefully accessed with close
co-operation with the industrial sectors”.
Last year the EU’s environment department moved to limit the coal
lobby’s influence on pollution standards, after revelations by the
Guardian and Greenpeace about the scale of industry involvement.
The commission had previously allowed hundreds of energy industry
lobbyists to aggressively push for weaker pollution limits as part of
the official negotiating teams of EU member states.
The Green MEP Molly Scott Cato said that the UK’s robust advocacy of
BP’s positions was a cause of deep shame, and illustrated how Brexit
would increase the power of fossil fuel firms.
She said: “It reveals how the arm-twisting tactics of big oil seek to
undermine the EU’s progressive energy and climate policies. BP’s covert
lobbying, combined with threats of an exodus of the petrochemicals
industry from the EU, are nothing short of blackmail.
“This document paints a disturbing picture of the degree to which global
corporations subvert the democratic process, influence the commission
and threaten the vital transition to a cleaner, greener Europe.”
A BP spokesman said that the letter was intended to “highlight the risk
of ‘carbon leakage’, where EU policy to reduce carbon emissions may
result in industry relocating outside the EU, rather than achieving any
actual reduction in emissions. Avoiding this perverse outcome is of
critical importance to climate policy.”
In his reply to BP, Oettinger said that his department was finalising an
energy prices report and “your thoughts are very valuable in this context”.
Before the report’s publication, Oettinger’s team removed figures from
an earlier draft which revealed that EU states spent €40bn (£32bn) a
year on subsidies for fossil fuels, compared to €35bn for nuclear
energy, and just €30bn for renewables. The commissioner’s office argues
that the numbers were inconsistent and “not comparable”
Early in his tenure, Oettinger had been forced to back down on plans for
a moratorium on deepwater offshore oil drills in the wake of the BP
Deepwater Horizon disaster. Within two years, he had become an industry
champion, arguing that Europe was competitively disadvantaged by a
reluctance to take offshore drilling risks.
Oettinger regularly hosts alpine retreats for government ministers,
bankers and captains of industry. In 2013, these included executives
from Shell, Statoil, GDF Suez, EDF, Alstom, Enel and ENI, although not BP.
A spokeswoman for Oettinger said: “When the Commission prepares formal
legislative proposals, there is a full public consultation exercise in
which all stakeholders can participate. With the majority of the EU
legislation referred to, Commissioner Oettinger was not the Commissioner
in the lead.”
An alignment between the commission’s eventual climate proposals and
BP’s positions was “unfound,” the official added.
In his reply to BP, Oettinger said that he shared the firm’s views on a
guarantee for unlimited crude oil and gas exports being included in a
TTIP free trade deal and welcomed more “thoughts” from the company.
Along with Shell, BP began lobbying for an end to the EU’s renewables
and energy efficiency targets in 2011, but the scope of its lobby
intervention went further.
In its letter, BP strongly opposed renewable energy subsidies,
particularly in Germany, and a planned cap on certain biofuels which
studies have shown to be highly-polluting.
Over the year that followed, an EU state aid decision on renewables went
against Germany, while a cap on the amount of first generation biofuels
that could be counted towards EU targets was also weakened.
Europe’s efforts to cut carbon emissions should be built upon
market-based tools such as its flagship emissions trading scheme, BP
said in its letter.
But EU proposals to label tar sands oil as more polluting than other oil
– which could lead to additional taxes – risked companies “being
penalised subjectively on the basis of adverse perceptions”, according
to BP.
The tar sands proposal was vehemently opposed by the UK and the
Netherlands, and the plan was eventually dropped in 2014.
Jos Dings, the director of the sustainable transport thinktank Transport
and Environment said: “In case anyone doubted why Europe chose to treat
all oil – regular and high polluting – the same, here’s the answer: Big
Oil telling the commission that really its impossible to tell them apart.”
Lisa Nandy, the Labour’s shadow energy and climate secretary, called for
the EU’s climate policies to be strengthened. “By working together with
like-minded governments across Europe we can ensure that big companies
cannot water down environmental safeguards,” she said.
BP recently topped a survey of the most obstructive company on climate
change, and is increasingly a target for fossil fuels divestment campaigns.
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