The Times: Royal Dutch Shell threatens to quit Europe over carbon-charging proposals
April 10, 2008
Robin Pagnamenta, Energy and Environment Editor
Royal Dutch Shell, the world’s second-largest oil company, threatened yesterday to stop investing in Europe if it is forced to pay for emissions permits that have previously been free.
Christian Balme, a Shell France director, told the European Parliament that if the EU moved towards a system in which emission quotas were auctioned, it would destroy Shell’s profitability in Europe.
In January, the European Commission announced proposals aimed at slashing EU emissions of CO2 by 20 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020.
One of the cornerstones of this was a proposed reform of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which allocates a fixed quota of emissions permits to heavy industry for free.
The EC has proposed that from 2013, oil refineries and airlines, and possibly some other industrial sectors, will have to pay for 20 per cent of their emissions permits, rising to 100 per cent by 2020.
Mr Balme argued that if the proposals become law they would have a devastating economic impact on Shell’s European operations.
They include some of the region’s biggest oil refineries including Pernis near Rotterdam and its Heide, Godorf and Wesseling plants in Germany.
“It’s impossible. So there will be no more investments by Shell in Europe,” Mr Balme said. “I am talking about $250 million [£126 million] of profits at the moment. If we extrapolate the price of CO2 by the tonne, we arrive at the same level, which is unacceptable.”
Shell says that it favours “cap and trade” trading systems for big polluters, including power generators and most industrial facilities.
A spokeswoman for Shell said yesterday that allowances should be free. “Shell does not favour auctioning allowances in the first phase of a system because the impacts on the industries and firms covered by the system are highly uncertain,” she said.
The EU’s announcement in January was accompanied by warnings that it would be “economic suicide” to punish industry so heavily and risked simply pushing investment and emissions into regions where trading schemes do not exist.
A decision on whether other industries should have to pay for permits was delayed.
Several big energy companies and utilities are trenchantly opposed to the auction plans and have threatened to withdraw investment from the EU. Member states are trying to reach agreement by the end of this year.
A range of other proposals were included in the EU’s package of reforms, including setting national targets for power generation from renewable energy.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article3716388.ece
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
MORE DETAILS:
A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
