Annual Report 2010 - Verein der Kohlenimporteure eV

58 Even according to government information, a
addition to the €50 billion already paid so far. That is
approximately €10 billion a year, or nearly as much as
“the Soli” (Solidarity surcharge) pours into the coffers
It would be time, as recently requested by the press,
to move “the financing of the subsidy system for
renewable power to where the expenditure and income
Coalition Agreement on CCS Draft Legislation
“Light” Reached
The EU, with its CCS Directive agreed in 2008, made an
important step to improve the climate. At the beginning
put forward as national law.
What followed, however, was not only a diverging
opinion between the Ministry for Economic Affairs
(BMWi) and the Ministry for the Environment, but
election tactics mainly by Schleswig-Holstein that
staged a controversy on the underground storage of
carbon dioxide between federal states.
The draft bill only considers the capture and storage
of carbon dioxide (CCS) as a demonstration project.
governments in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein
had to be overcome. They required wide-ranging
assurances that they could exclude storage sites in their
countries (the so-called opt-out clause), which would
not be a legal implementation of the EU directive. Time
is however short, because the EU has offered support
for demonstration projects which must be requested by
the middle of the year and stipulates that a law must
have entered into force. Thus the search for suitable
CO 2 storage sites in Germany and the subsequent
storage of CO 2 are all but impossible. Only at the
agree the draft of a law for the demonstration and use of
technologies for the capture, transport and permanent
storage of carbon dioxide (CCS bill).
Economic Affairs stated, “With the draft bill, the
by-step procedure for the further development of CCS
technologies. The draft bill first allows the testing and
demonstration of some carbon dioxide storage sites
and foresees a comprehensive evaluation of the state of
Concretely, the bill on CCS proposes to regulate the
following:
Underground surveys to determine a site´s suitability
for permanent storage,
the establishment and operation of carbon dioxide
storage sites,
the closure and post-closure management of carbon
dioxide storage sites, and further,
handing sites over to the public authorities after a 30year
period.
Central criterion to obtain a permit for a demonstration
storage site is the evidence of long-term security. The
operator must take precautions against any potential
impacts on the population and the environment
according to state-of-the-art science and technology,
i.e. meet the highest standards of precaution. He must
take into consideration current knowledge during the
entire process of long-term storage. The bill also makes
extensive provisions for compulsory insurance cover and
post-closure management.
BMWi also stressed the industrial policy and international
dimensions of CCS: “With a CCS bill based on our
draft, we have a secure legal framework for the testing
and demonstration of CCS projects. We can therefore
go ahead with this technology in Germany – for the