Renewable energy consultancy misled public on oil policy

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ordered a renewable energy consultancy to remove a “misleading and unsubstantiated” claim about government policy on oil from its website.

A poster titled “Renewable Heat – the Facts” for Surrey-based ReEnergise contained the text “Don’t forget, it’s now government policy that oil is to be outlawed from estates by 2030 and the heat subsidy qualification deadline is April 2021.”

Text underneath the heading stated: “Switching to renewable heating systems is not just a way for schools to save money.”

Two claimants, Oil Firing Technical Association (OFTEC) and the Federation of Petroleum Suppliers (both trade associations for the oil distribution industry), challenged whether the first claim, specifically the part about outlawing oil, was misleading and could be substantiated.

Furthermore the Federation of Petroleum Suppliers challenged whether the claim regarding schools was misleading and could be substantiated.

The ruling published by the ASA today (27 February) considered that consumers were likely to understand the first claim, which relied on a Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Clean Growth Strategy paper from 2017, to be an objective statement that there was current government policy intended to prohibit the use of oil from estates by 2030.

While the document did outline the government’s policy to reduce the use of fossil fuels in heating by 2030, which included oil, the ASA considered that the paper only showed government intention to phase out the use of oil as opposed to completely prohibiting it.

Responding to the investigation ReEnergise referred to sections of the policy paper which it believed outlined the government’s intention to ban the use of high carbon fossil fuels such as oil by 2030.

The company accepted that there were “no specific policies” which outlined how those intentions would be achieved, but argued that such information would not be featured in a strategy document.

It added that although the “legislation may not exist yet, it did not mean that there were no future plans for such”.

The company referred to the government’s carbon reduction targets outlined in the Climate Change Act 2008 which it believed supported the view that the government intended to ban the use of oil.

However ReEnergise acknowledged that the wording of the paper could be interpreted in different ways and said that its interpretation of the paper was that during the 2020s there would be no further installations of high carbon fossil fuel heating systems.

It added that its reading of the paper was also informed by its correspondence with BEIS on the topic.

Furthermore it said that readers were unlikely to interpret the language literally and would understand that the issue was one which would affect them in a legislative and moral way.

As a result of its findings, the ASA concluded that the first claim had not been substantiated and was therefore misleading.

The ASA ruled: “The ad must not appear again in its current form.

“We told ReEnergise to remove the claim ‘Don’t forget it’s now government policy that oil will be outlawed from estates by 2030’ and not to suggest that oil would be prohibited by 2030.”

The ASA found the second claim had been substantiated and was not misleading.

In its findings the authority referenced that both Ofgem and the Energy Saving Trust have information on their websites about how switching to renewable energy could save money on energy bills.

It said ReEnergise had provided data showing savings were achievable when switching from oil to a renewable alternative.

The ASA ruled “sufficient evidence” had been supplied to indicate schools would generally achieve a saving if they switched from oil to any renewable heating system.

Utility Week contacted ReEnergise for comment but had not received a response at the time of publication.

Last week, the ASA ruled that “Energy Watchdog Ltd” – a Merseyside-based heating systems business must not “claim or imply” it is regulator or consumer champion for the energy industry.