Two cross-party committees of MPs have added to the bad news for Ministers, publishing a damning report into the handling of FITs the morning after the court found their actions were unlawful. The Environmental Audit Committee and Energy and Climate Change Committees came together to hold joint hearings into the FITs proposals shortly after Ministers [...]
Amongst all the excitement, it would be easy to forget the consultation is still open – the closing day for submissions is tomorrow. If you have not submitted a form yet, the page with links to documents and the online response form is here.
At the end of last week, Solar Century, HomeSun and environmental group Friends of the Earth won permission to seek a ruling in the High Court that the decision to slash FITs payments was unlawful. Mr Justice Mitting recognised the “economic risk” that solar companies face as a result of the sudden cuts announced, and [...]
There remains confusion over whether or not the 21p rate proposed in the consultation for domestic installations between 12th December and April could change as a result of the ongoing consultation. Fears have been raised about what would happen if an installations was sold with income projections using the 21p figure, only to find the [...]
Finally, later this week a Joint Select Committee report will be published on the reductions to FITs tariffs. It important to ensure that your MPs see the key conclusions – so keep an eye open here for details and make sure you send them on to your MP early in the New Year. By raising [...]
New day of action – 13/12/11 We want to use the day after the FITs deadline to make our voices heard again about the devastation this Government is wreaking on a growing, green industry. We could gather in London again to take the message direct to Government. Or we could stage a series of regional [...]
This may seem boring – but it is vital MPs do not think we have gone away. They are very used to weathering storms and hoping they will pass – and find it much harder to deal with arguments that just keep coming back – especially if they are hard for them to justify. So, [...]
Just in case you didn’t see, the mass lobby was a great success not only in bringing together about 500 solar workers – but also getting our voices heard by many MPs in parliament. There is a good write up if you haven’t seen it here: http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/uk_solar_supporters_descend_on_parliament_5478/ and a nice little film on Business green [...]
The DECC and EAC held a joint select committee hearing this week into the handling of the feed in tariffs by Government. The hearing was split over three sessions with evidence being given by industry in the first session, DECC Ministers and officials in the second session and Treasury Ministers and officials in the last [...]
FITs cut “unlawful” says Judge
In a dramatic judgement yesterday at the High Court, Mr Justice Mitting found Government Ministers had acted unlawfully in cutting feed-in tariffs from the 12th December. After a two day hearing closely examining the law, he decided that Ministers were not following the correct legal process, and were wrong to reduce tariff rates without first laying [...]