Spanish environmentalists are starting to campaign for a levy on “windfall profits” earned by Iberdrola SA and Endesa SA, the country’s biggest utilities.
Joan Herrera, the leader of the Catalan Greens party, said yesterday he’s aiming to build public support for a plan to impose charges on nuclear and hydroelectric plants that earned 3.6 billion euros ($4.6 billion) last year even though they have paid off their initial capital investment.
“This is a scandal,” Herrera said in a telephone interview. “We’re trying to raise awareness so that they will set policy in the interests of the public rather than the power companies.”
Lawmakers from Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s Socialist Party voted down the Greens’ proposal in the Spanish parliament this week. Instead, the premier is cutting consumer subsidies for renewable power as he seeks to put Spain’s electricity system on a more sustainable footing.
During the last decade Spanish power consumers have built up a debt to electricity providers because the government has hasn’t let the utilities charge a high enough rate, or tariff, to cover their regulated costs. The “tariff deficit” generated last year was about 4.6 billion euros, Herrera told parliament in the Sept. 7 debate.
Industry Minister Miguel Sebastian has been negotiating cuts in the consumer-paid subsidies that wind and solar energy operators earn in a bid to narrow the deficit. Under Spanish law, officials have to eliminate the shortfall by 2013.