Political stand-off in Spain over plan to tax renewable power

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Cutting the "tariff deficit" is a priority of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy

Partido Poular de Melilla/Flickr

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By Karl-Erik Stromsta London

 Tuesday, August 21 2012

Updated: Sunday, November 25 2012

Spain’s budget minister has pledged to block a proposal to slap a tax on renewable-energy production, setting up a showdown between ministers over whether renewables assets should be tapped to help shrink the country’s electricity “tariff deficit”.

However, even as Cristobal Montoro downplayed the possibility that such a tax would be imposed – saying that doing so would breach European law – he came under scrutiny for his ties to a Madrid-based lobbying firm that represents some of the country’s largest owners of renewables plants, such as Abengoa.

Last month Spain’s energy sector was rocked by leaked reports indicating that the government plans to impose a tax on generation at wind, solar and nuclear plants – all of which had been spared a similar tax placed on thermal generation…

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