Beefed-up packaging tax will triple pub chain’s costs from the levy to £2.4m a year, says Tim Martin
The boss of the pub chain Wetherspoon’s has vowed to keep price increases to a “minimum”, after blaming a beefed-up packaging tax and rising energy bills for extra costs.
Tim Martin said the recently introduced “extended producer responsibility” levy on packaging would lead to the company’s costs from the tax tripling from £800,000 to £2.4m a year.
Continue reading...As typical annual dual-fuel charge rises to £1,755, charities warn over record £4.4bn owed to suppliers
Britons preparing to ration energy as Ofgem price cap rises, says charity
What is the energy price cap for Great Britain, and can I cut my bill?
Three and a half years after war plunged Europe into an energy supply crisis, millions of households in Great Britain are braced for another winter of painful gas and electricity bills.
On Wednesday, the quarterly cap on charges will increase again. Despite a fall in wholesale gas prices, the ceiling for a typical annual dual-fuel bill will rise by 2% to £1,755 to help cover the costs of energy policies and network upgrades.
Continue reading...National Energy Action says 58% of households expect to cut heating use as typical annual dual-fuel bill increases to £1,755
‘It’s unsustainable’: homes in Great Britain brace for winter with soaring energy debts
What is the energy price cap for Great Britain, and can I cut my bill?
The majority of British households expect to restrict their home heating this winter to try to keep rising costs in check, according to research released as the price cap that dictates most bills rose again.
The fuel poverty charity National Energy Action said 58% of households told its survey they were likely to trim their energy use, a nine-percentage-point increase from the level in January.
Continue reading...Insolvency Service says 125 roles to go at Lincolnshire plant, which went into administration in summer
Almost a third of workers at the Prax Lindsey oil refinery in north Lincolnshire, which collapsed into administration this summer, will lose their jobs at the end of October.
The Insolvency Service said the decision to make 125 roles redundant, with 255 people remaining at the site, “was not taken lightly” and follows a thorough review of “all aspects of the business, following its insolvency”.
Continue reading...Renewables are thriving, with Africa breaking solar energy records – but action is needed to plug financing gap
The first signs of a takeoff of Africa’s green economy are raising hopes that a transformation of the continent’s fortunes may be under way, driven by solar power and an increase in low-carbon investment.
African leaders are meeting this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the Africa Climate Summit, a precursor to the global UN Cop30 in November. They will call for an increase in support from rich countries for Africa’s green resurgence, without which they will warn it could be fragile and spread unevenly.
Continue reading...Greg Jackson expected to use three-year term on Cabinet Office board to push government to modernise
Keir Starmer has appointed the outspoken founder of Octopus Energy as an adviser, with a remit to challenge government thinking.
Greg Jackson has joined the Cabinet Office board, an influential core of government advisers, as a non-executive member.
Continue reading...Hungary’s foreign minister claims missile strike on energy infrastructure is ‘another attempt to drag us into war’
Ukraine has hit a key pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline bringing fuel to Europe from Russia, knocking out supplies to Hungary and Slovakia, the only remaining EU member states still receiving Russian oil.
As Ukraine targets infrastructure crucial to Moscow’s war effort in response to the Russian onslaught, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi, announced the attack on the Unecha pumping station in the Bryansk region.
Continue reading...Administrator was appointed after parent company State Oil was given new information about £783m loan
The Prax Lindsey oil refinery collapsed after “material irregularities” were discovered in a complex £783m loan facility that funded the wider group, it has emerged.
The refinery on the Humber estuary in northern England – one of just five left in the UK, – was suddenly plunged into administration in late June, prompting calls from furious government ministers for an investigation into Winston Soosaipillai, Prax Group’s oil tycoon owner.
Continue reading...Danish company blames Donald Trump for derailing its business model after market value drops by a third
Europe’s largest wind power company has blamed Donald Trump for derailing its business model, after it unveiled a $9bn (£6.7bn) fundraising and its market value plunged by almost a third.
The share price for Denmark’s Ørsted tumbled to an all-time low after it told investors on Monday that the “extraordinary situation” facing the industry meant it would need to tap shareholders to cover the costs of its plans.
Continue reading...‘Massive and unpredictable’ swarm entered filter drums that pull in water, Gravelines operator EDF says
The Gravelines nuclear power plant in northern France has been shut down after a swarm of jellyfish entered the filter drums that pull in cooling water, according to its state-owned operator, EDF.
The plant in northern France is one of the largest in the country and cooled from a canal connected to the North Sea.
Continue reading...US carmaker makes move for licence that would allow it to provide energy to domestic and business premises
Elon Musk’s Tesla is gearing up to launch a household electricity supplier in Great Britain in the coming months.
The US electric car manufacturer run by the world’s richest man has formally applied to the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, for an electricity supply licence, according to a notice published on the watchdog’s website.
Continue reading...Plans have provoked outrage from communities in areas of Great Britain expected to host new infrastructure
The government is pushing head with a plan to offer those who live near new electricity pylons a discount of £2,500 from their energy bills over the next 10 years to ease the backlash against its clean power plans.
Thousands of households within half a kilometre of new or upgraded electricity infrastructure could each receive up to £250 off their annual energy bill from next year to help speed up the rollout of infrastructure critical to the government’s targets.
Continue reading...Company to carry out more tests on its Santos basin find as it continues shift from renewables back to fossil fuels
BP has made its largest oil and gas discovery of the past 25 years off the coast of Brazil as it continues to shift its focus away from renewables and back to fossil fuels.
The Santos basin oil and gas discovery, which is located in deep waters, is the company’s 10th oil discovery of the year and could be its largest since its discovery at the Shah Deniz gasfield in Azerbaijan in 1999.
Continue reading...Government’s deal with EDF, Centrica and other backers marks end of 15-year journey to win funding for project
The UK government has struck a deal worth more than £38bn with private investors to back Britain’s biggest nuclear project in a generation, at the Sizewell C site on the Suffolk coast.
The long-awaited multibillion-pound deal, which will be paid for through taxes and energy bills, gives the final go-ahead for construction of the nuclear project, which has almost doubled in cost from when it was first proposed.
Continue reading...Claims involve former finance minister Cristóbal Montoro and dealings with gas and other energy companies
Just when Spain’s opposition People’s party thought it had the socialist government of Pedro Sánchez on the ropes over a series of corruption scandals, it has been hit by a controversy of its own over alleged trafficking of influences by Cristóbal Montoro, the former finance minister.
It is alleged that Montoro established the “economic team”, a lawyer’s office linked to the finance ministry, which took kickbacks from gas and other energy companies in return for favourable government policy. It is claimed that between 2008 and 2015 Montoro and 27 other accused, among them senior treasury officials, were paid at least €11m (£9.5m) by big energy companies.
Continue reading...Europe accused of ‘trampling over Palestinian rights’ with deal linked to imports from pipeline running parallel to Gaza coast
The EU is “trampling over Palestinian rights” and risks breaching international law, over an energy deal signed with Israel to bring more gas to Europe, a campaign group has said.
A report by Global Witness shared exclusively with the Guardian concludes that the EU could be “complicit in breaches of international law” over a 2022 energy deal linked to gas imports from a pipeline said to traverse Palestinian waters. The NGO has called on the EU to cancel all gas imports linked to the East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) pipeline and terminate the 2022 deal, which was also signed with Egypt.
Continue reading...Energy minister decides against ‘zonal pricing’ backed by Octopus founder but opposed by many other energy firms
Ed Miliband has abandoned plans to charge southern electricity users more than those in Scotland, after senior officials warned it could put off investors and make it more difficult to build renewables.
Sources have told the Guardian that the government has decided not to proceed with the scheme, known as “zonal pricing”, and that the decision will be announced once it has been signed off by the cabinet.
Continue reading...Ofgem opens investigation into National Grid as report finds incident that cut airport power was preventable
The root cause of the substation fire that shut Heathrow airport was a preventable technical fault that National Grid had been aware of seven years ago but failed to fix properly, investigators have concluded.
The final report by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) on the incident said the fire that cut power to the airport on 21 March, affecting more than 1,350 flights, almost 300,000 passengers and cutting power to 67,000 homes, was “most likely” sparked by moisture entering the insulation around wires.
Continue reading...Statement to stock market follows media reports of early talks with BP to create a £200bn UK oil company
Shell has said it has “no intention” of making an offer for the rival fossil fuel company BP after speculation it had been planning a £60bn takeover, ruling out a formal approach for the next six months.
In an official statement to markets on Thursday, the company doubled down on the previous day’s denials that it was planning a bid, after media reports that it was in early talks with its competitor to create a £200bn UK oil supermajor.
Continue reading...RTS meters in 300,000 homes to be phased out rather than turned off on 30 June deadline
As the temperature climbed towards 30C the peril of turning off a system that could leave people with their heating stuck on full must have looked like an avoidable disaster.
On Thursday ministers confirmed the “widespread switch-off” of the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS), which controls an old type of electricity meter, “will not happen” on 30 June.
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