Tilting at windfall taxes
Plus: EU taxonomy farce; honesty in decarbonisation + MORE
FIRST UP: Windfall taxes are always popular because they conveniently shift blame onto ‘greedy corporations’. The energy industry is often painted as the villain, but clawing back excessive earnings made at the expense of consumers is easier said than done. That’s right here in this email 👇
BREAKOUT STORY: Energy is such a divisive issue in the EU that even a soporific bureaucratic exercise to determine which sources are deemed ‘green’ is opening up deep political schisms. That’s this week’s breakout story (5-min read):
IN THIS EMAIL:
💥 Why a windfall tax on energy producers won’t happen
The tax man’s short arms
Tilting at windfalls
No easy targets
Developers go YOLO on wholesale risks
💥The need for an honest decarbonisation debate
Lessons from Germany’s coal transition
Irish politicians recoil at hard truths
💥China secures more Russian LNG as Europe demurs over gas
🌎Global headlines by key topic (20+ curated links)
🧠Energised minds: ‘If we believed our own climate rhetoric, support for nuclear would be much higher’
💥Why a windfall tax on energy producers won’t happen
The two major beneficiaries from the UK energy crunch are upstream oil and gas producers, and power generators that receive a subsidy on top of exorbitant wholesale power prices. With consumers staring down the barrel of swingeing utility bill increases from April, there is a growing clamour for windfall taxes – but the question of precisely where excessive profits are being made is devilishly complicated in both cases.