The EU seems to have seen the writing on the wall and is starting to beat a retreat from its previous environmentalist-friendly policies:
If European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has his way, the European Union would do away with its green energy mandate and replace it with a voluntary system in which EU member states set their own renewable energy targets as they see fit.
German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday reported that Barroso is pushing for an end to EU renewable energy mandates when the current legally binding target expires in 2020.
How times change. Here is Senor Barroso just a couple of years ago:
José Manuel Barroso, the commission president, expressed confidence that renewables would move from an alternative form of energy to the mainstream over the next decade. “I believe renewable energy is neither a luxury nor a distraction,” Mr Barroso said.