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Environmental groups are bringing new legal action to ratchet up pressure on the European Union to shun fossil fuels, challenging a key part of the bloc’s strategy to get off Russian energy.
The groups, led by Europe-based environmental law charity ClientEarth, specifically targeted 30 in-the-works energy infrastructure projects by requesting that the European Commission undertake an internal review of their approvals. The projects, which include interstate natural gas pipelines and compressor stations, were deemed to be “projects of common interest” under EU law, giving them access to certain advantages such as accelerated permitting.
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ClientEarth argues the projects are unlawful and that the EU is “ignoring its own climate and energy goals” by considering the projects in the common interest.
“This list amounts to a VIP pass for fossil gas in Europe, when we should be talking about its phase-out,” Guillermo Ramo, a lawyer for ClientEarth, said in a statement. “The Commission did not consider the impact of methane emissions derived from gas infrastructure projects — in spite of evidence that these impacts are substantial. That’s unlawful.”
The review process gives the European Commission up to 22 weeks to reply to the request, ClientEarth said, but it promised to ask the EU’s Court of Justice to intervene “if they refuse to budge.”
The legal action reflects a broader displeasure many environmentalists have with the European Commission for supporting certain gas infrastructure, dissatisfaction that’s been refined since the war in Ukraine began and intensified Europe’s vulnerability to energy price shocks.
EU leaders have declared renewable energy as the ultimate fix to Europe’s energy woes, and their ambitions have become even more “green.” The commission introduced a plan on May 18 to increase the EU’s bloc-wide renewable energy target to 45% by 2030, up from the earlier target of 40%, to “rapidly reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition.”
At the same time, the commission’s plan earmarked 10 billion euros for investment in “limited additional gas infrastructure,” and member governments have embraced the construction of new terminals to accommodate more liquefied natural gas imports from countries such as the United States and Qatar.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the introduction of new LNG terminals in a recent speech as enabling Europe’s “resolve to get rid of Russian fossil fuels dependency, rapidly.”
“More LNG and pipeline gas will also come from the Middle East and North Africa. New LNG terminals in Greece, in Cyprus, and in Poland will soon become operational, as will new interconnectors,” she said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She emphasized that Europe is still looking forward and that new pipeline infrastructure “will then over time form the core of our hydrogen corridors.”
Von der Leyen and President Joe Biden also agreed in March to create a joint “task force for energy security” whose mission is to help Europe secure alternative gas supplies.
As part of the effort, Biden committed to helping secure 15 billion cubic meters of additional LNG for Europe this year. The task force also will seek to meet an additional 50 bcm worth of Europe’s demand with U.S. LNG annually through 2030.
The task force, however, has driven a wedge between environmentalists and Western governments, including between Biden and his green constituencies. Many groups have criticized the administration for blessing and “locking in” more fossil fuels for years to come.
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Friends of the Earth, a U.S.-based environmental group, has also accused the Biden administration of serving the oil and gas industry with the task force. It filed a lawsuit against the State Department on May 31 in hopes of extracting information about Amos Hochstein, a former gas industry executive and State’s senior adviser for energy security, who has been helping lead the administration’s energy diplomacy.
In its complaint, FOE said it has an “urgent need” to acquire the information and expects it to “provide vital insight into the fossil fuel industry’s well-publicized efforts to use the war to lobby agencies within the federal government — including the State Department — to expand natural gas production and infrastructure.”
