Polish Power-Station Free Carbon Bid Breaks Law:Greenpeace

31 May 2012, Bloomberg

Poland broke European Union law when unbuilt power stations were permitted to apply for free carbon allowances last year, Greenpeace and three other climate charities said.

The EU must ensure that Poland complies with the bloc?s emissions law when it allocates free allowances to utilities from next year, said the groups, which also include London-based ClientEarth, the Czech Republic?s CEE Bankwatch Network and Environmental Law Service.
?We call on the European Commission, as the guardian of the treaties and EU law, to immediately start the appropriate procedures,? they wrote in a letter to EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and obtained by Bloomberg News.
In the next trading period of the EU emissions trading system from 2013 west European utilities will no longer get free permits, while east European power plants will have to buy 30 percent of their permits at auctions, rising to 100 percent by 2020.
The commission, the EU?s regulatory arm, said earlier this year it will decide in July on free carbon-dioxide permits for utilities in eight member states that requested them.