CRC Registration – No decision on ATH Resources

23 Jan 2012

ATH Resources is a coal mining company based in the northeast and has refused to register for CRC. The Environment Agency issued an enforcement notice and the company appealed.

ATH operates the largest conveyor in Europe – over 12km long – which is a major consumer of electricity. Presumably they based their appeal on the definition of the conveyor as transport, which is excluded from CRC. The hearing took place in the first week of November 2011 and until recently the DECC website said that the decision would be published as soon as possible after the hearing.

Having heard nothing I emailed for clarification and this week received the following by post (!) “…the Department intends to publish the decision once this has been communicated to the parties that were at the appeal.” It’s difficult to see what might be holding up the communication process. Equally it’s difficult to see how the Department can accept special pleading from a coalmine.

At least ATH can relax knowing that penalties for non-registration are not racking up at £500 per day, since enforcements and penalties are suspended from the date an appeal is submitted. It will be interesting to see how the ATH Resources situation is finally resolved.

Penalties for non-registration and for non-submission of a footprint report are each capped at £45,000. Penalties for not submitting an annual report are not capped. They start at £5,000 for the first day, run at £500 per day for the next 40 days and then increase to £1,000 per day. In addition, in the continued absence of an annual report after 40 days the Environment Agency will assess the organisation’s emissions, double the figure and impose a penalty based on those notional emissions, calculated at £40/tCO2.

[References: Penalties and offences in CRC – Environment Agency; Appeals Guidance CRC – DECC]

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