Feed in tariff update
March, 2012
DECC to appeal against ruling
The government has lodged an application to appeal to the Supreme Court, following two court rulings which declared its plans to rush through cuts to feed-in tariff incentives for solar installations were unlawful.
As had widely expected the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) met the 21 February deadline to apply for an appeal to the court, following a rejection of its initial appeal by three Court of Appeal judges last month.
“We respectfully disagree with the Court of Appeal’s decision on feed-in tariffs [FITs] and we have today lodged an application with the Supreme Court seeking that court’s permission to appeal,” a DECC spokeswoman told reporters. “We are now awaiting a decision of the Supreme Court on permission.”
If DECC is granted an appeal, it will seek authority to enact proposals set out in last year’s controversial consultation on changes to solar FIT incentives. If it wins the case it will be allowed to halve the FIT rate for installations with a capacity of less than 4kW that were completed after 12 December last year to 21p/kWh from April 1. If it again loses all solar installations completed between 12 December and a new cut-off date of 4 March will retain the higher 43p/kWh incentive. The government maintains the urgent cuts to the tariff are necessary to prevent the incentive scheme exceeding its budget.
“We want to see the available funding spread as far and wide as possible making feed-in tariffs a scheme for the many, not a scheme for the few, supporting sustainable jobs in solar and in a whole range of small-scale renewables,” added the DECC spokeswoman.
However, the government’s decision to appeal has been slammed by green groups and some MPs, who accused ministers of wasting taxpayers money by continuing the legal proceedings to the final court.
“This government has already wasted tens of thousands of pounds on legal fees in a desperate attempt to save face over their chaotic mismanagement of the cuts to the feed-in tariff for solar power,” said Caroline Flint Labour’s shadow energy and climate change secretary. “Taxpayers should not be made to foot the bill for this government’s incompetence.
“The cuts to solar power will hit families trying to protect themselves from soaring energy bills and do the right thing by the environment, and put thousands of jobs and businesses at risk. What the industry needs – and what the public deserves – is certainty about the future of solar power. But this government is so out of touch, it is just creating even more uncertainty and wasting even more taxpayers money by seeking a third appeal,” added Flint.
Solar firms are also concerned that if successful the government’s legal argument would give it the right to retrospectively change any FIT payments at any time, even for installations that are already in place.
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