The electricity market regulator CREG has called upon energy minister Paul Magnette to find a way to force power generators Electrabel and SPE to reimburse profits they made from charging business clients for carbon emission rights. The power companies did not themselves pay for the rights, issued by the government under a European Union programme to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. But they passed a notional cost on to industrial customers, with the total since 2005 now reaching €1.5 billion.