Bid to overturn energy NPS launched

Ecotricity’s founder Dale Vince is backing a legal bid to force the government to review the planning policy statement that underpins new energy infrastructure projects.

Vince, along with two other listed claimants, wants the government to re-examine the Energy National Policy Statement (NPS) on the grounds that it is out of date and does not reflect recent shifts in the UK’s climate change policy and international commitments.

These include the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s recent reports, the 2015 Paris Agreement, the government’s adoption last year of the net zero emissions target and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

The letter to the government legal department setting out the claim states that the NPS, which has not been reviewed since 2011, is being used to push through fossil fuel powered developments.

It cites as an example former energy secretary Andrea Leadsom’s approval in October last year for Drax’s application to build a new gas-fired generating units against her appointed planning inspector’s recommendation that it should be rejected.

Justifying her decision, Leadsom wrote that the “significant adverse impact” from the greenhouse gases the plant would emit should not over-ride the presumption in favour of granting consent for energy projects enshrined in the NPS.

The letter cites statements in the NPS, such as the “vital role” that it identifies for fossil fuel power station developments in the UK’s energy mix, as proof that it is out of line with current policy.

The two other claimants are the Good Law Project Limited and Guardian columnist George Monbiot

The submission of the letter follows hot on the heels of the Court of Appeal’s ruling last week overturning the Airports NPS, which provides the basis for approving the third runway at Heathrow, on the grounds that it does not take into account the UK’s commitments under the 2015 Paris climate change agreement to limit global temperature rises.