WRITTEN QUESTION E-1554/01

by María Rodríguez Ramos (PSE) to the Commission

(28 May 2001)

Subject: A thermal power plant to be built in Tordesillas, Spain

The American multinational ENRON wants to build an 800 megawatt natural gas and diesel oil power plant on the outskirts of Tordesillas which, according to data supplied by the company, will release 2 540 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (the main cause of climate change), 2 100 tonnes of nitrogen oxides, 191 tonnes of sulphur dioxide, 545 tonnes of carbon monoxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere every year.

This project is being planned in an Autonomous Region which produces three times more electricity than it consumes. It is therefore obviously already producing a surplus.

The plant would be located only 2 kilometres from Tordesillas, a town with 8 000 inhabitants, and 5 km from the only protected natural area in the province of Valladolid - the Riberas de Castronuño nature reserve - and only a few kilometres from the vineyards producing wine under the registered designation of origin Rueda.

At Kyoto the EU undertook to reduce CO2 emissions by 8 % compared with 1990 levels. Spain is obliged not to exceed certain emission values by 2010 (1,15 times the 1990 level). If the power plant at Tordesillas is built, according to the figures estimated by the company itself, the annual CO2 emissions would exceed 2,6 million tonnes, a 10 % increase in the total for Castile and Leon, and prevent Spain from meeting the Kyoto objectives.

Does the Commission have an active monitoring system to prevent the Member States from authorising new power plants which would make it impossible to comply with the Kyoto agreements?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(24 July 2001)

The Commission is not in a legal position to impose a certain energy supply policy on a Member State. Choice of sources of energy supply falls within the competence of Member States.

In addition the Kyoto Protocol is not yet a legal binding agreement and therefore cannot provide a mandate for any enforcement.

Member States decide how they choose to meet the politically agreed emission reduction targets. Under certain circumstances

new power plants may help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This may be for instance the case, when new efficient power plants driven by less Carbondioxide (CO2) intensive fuels (e.g. gas) replace old inefficient power plants driven by coal, which is relatively CO2 intensive (so called fuel switch effect). It should be noted that under community legislation relating to large combustion plants, currently under revision, power plants have to meet emission standards in relation to emissions of e.g. sulphur emissions (SO2), nitrogenoxides (NOX).

In order to establish a continuous surveillance of Community CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions Council Decision 1999/296/EC of 26 April 1999 amending Decision 93/389/EEC for a monitoring mechanism of Community CO2 and other greenhouse emissions(1), is in force.

This decision obliges the Member States to report their greenhouse gas emissions and their policies and measures annually to the Commission and request the Commission to assess these data and to give annual progress reports presenting the results of this evaluation process, including the actual and projected progress of Member States.

The Commission not only calls for necessary decisions and an efficient implementation of additional policies and measures by Member States that enable the Community to meet the agreed greenhouse gas reduction targets, but started to develop proposals for new common and co-ordinated policies and measures as well.

The European Climate Change Programme (ECCP) has just come forward with its report available under http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/environment/climat/eccp.htm.

This will be followed by a Communication later this year, which will present the concrete proposals for further common and co-ordinated policies and measures against climate change.

(1) OJ L 117, 5.5.1999.