Some laws and ordinances that are currently being worked on do not seem to have been thought through to the end. Work is being done on the Energy Control Ordinance and the Renewables Expansion Act, as well as the Gas Diversification Act.
The Energy Control Ordinance is currently under review. At the beginning of July, Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler announced that conversions from gas to other forms of energy would be financed 100 percent in companies. The fact that this would increase CO2 emissions was also taken into account, corresponding exemptions would be granted, the companies and their interest groups were told.
But the dog is – as is so often the case – in the detail: The Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce has looked at a number of cases that entrepreneurs have brought to them to see what needs to be changed – but this is regulated in plant law and thus in the Ministry of Economics or in the state : the Upper Austrian Clean Air and Energy Technology Act, the Upper Austrian Heating Systems and Fuel Ordinance, the Federal Act on Oil Boiler Installation Bans and the Federal Firing Systems Ordinance. As of yesterday, no adjustments have been made in these cases, according to the Chamber of Commerce. In the cabinet of the Economics Minister, there was no perception of the subject yesterday, as a request from OÖN revealed.
The President of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Doris Hummer, calls for a kind of emergency permit: “The economy urgently needs exemptions from permits for emergency preparedness, especially in plant and construction law the conversion to other energy sources of plants for the generation of electricity, heat and cold.”
An example is the case of a Mühlviertel company that wants to switch from natural gas to wood chips. Because of the planning, process and delivery times, however, this cannot be done before the heating season. That’s why the company boss wanted to buy a mobile oil heater. However, the district authority announced that a project had to be submitted and a complete operating system approval process had to be completed. (sib)
Source: Nachrichten
