The father of the Energy Act received a change | ABC News
In ancient folklore was exchanges child of the underground with whom the Hulders exchanged newborn human children. The phenomenon also existed in Denmark where, according to Wikipedia, they were called shifts and in Germany where they went under the designation Bellows.
Well, we are exchanging electricity with Denmark, Germany and other countries in a way that is about to destroy Norway as a country with a surplus of cheap, clean electricity for the benefit of the population and business.
This is happening on the basis of the liberalization of the Norwegian power market which was adopted in 1990. At that time, the Willoch government, with the Center Party’s Eivind Reiten as Minister of Petroleum and Energy, adopted the Norwegian Energy Act.
Combined with EU energy and climate legislation that the Storting subsequently submitted to Norway, and new power cables abroad such as the same parliamentary majority have been eager for the result to be a toxic mix. It makes people and businesses poor and dependent on support – while future industrial development in the “green shift” is in danger.
Thousands percent power profit
Three decades later, this week I had a chat with Eivind Reiten to hear his thoughts on the energy “exchange” – the legislation that was his baby.
The situation is that a country with a surplus of clean power produced for less than 12 øre per. kWh, at power plants paid for by the inhabitants, now suffer from insane electricity prices.
The power companies make thousands of percent profit, while other businesses falter and the money is sucked out of the accounts of employees, pensioners and households. Price increase (CPI) has in the last year passed 5 per cent, more than double the normal, as a result of the price of electricity, which our elected representatives have linked to price developments on the continent and in the United Kingdom via the EEA agreement.
Also read: Radical changes are needed | ABC News
Would improve power flow regionally
It does not stop with the import of foreign power prices to Norway. The Norwegian power industry has at times managed to drive Norwegian power prices up to become higher than in the rest of Europe, in fact the highest in the continent!
The power companies have in fact tapped down so much of the reservoirs to export to lucrative markets, that they now invoke low water levels as a reason to surpass the rest of Europe and price level.
But the energy law as a liberalized power trade in Norway, which thus became a pioneer in Europe in market orientation, concentrated first and foremost on improving the flow of power in Norway and the abolition of regional monopolies, Eivind Reiten emphasizes confronting today’s realities.
With the law, which came into force in 1991, he wanted to ensure that the surplus power in one region benefited another region. Then came the liberalization of imports and exports a few years later as a natural follow-up to this. But then as part of a power exchange via the AC network to Sweden and Denmark with limited capacity.
Does not serve Norway – the state is rich enough from before
The limited power exchange to our neighboring country at the time is used in today’s debate by the power industry and the supporters of extensive power exports via the new direct current cables, by saying that “we have had useful power exchanges” with foreign countries for decades. “
– We must not confuse the big cables with the AC co-operation with Sweden and Denmark, which serve us well, says Reiten.
– What I question is whether we must not change the trade regime via the high-capacity direct current cables, he emphasizes and adds:
– If we continue as we do now, Norway will be much more like Europe in power prices. Thus, we will struggle to get long-term security for long-term fixed price agreements. We can get to industrial agreements, but at a higher price level. Power-intensive industry in Norway will not be in the same special power position as before.
Some say that power sales at high prices are good for Norway and the welfare state because it gives the state, county municipalities and municipalities high revenues. They are the ones who own most of the power companies.
– My point is that this will not serve Norway well if investors over time become reluctant to establish new industry and take the lives of small businesses. And the state is very rich from before.
Also read: End of the power country Norway
Hedge funds and the Industrial Action
Eivind Reiten’s statements must be music to the ears The industrial action, which on Thursday 20 January holds a major celebration in front of the Storting with demands for a new power policy.
Not only Fellesforbundet’s leader Jørn Eggum, but also CEO Stein Lier Hansen of the NHO association Norsk Industri, will be among the speakers. The leaders of the Norwegian Farmers’ Association and the Norwegian Farmers’ and Smallholders’ Association follow.
The activist can also take note of supportive argumentation from surprising teams:
Hedge fund manager Tor Svelland comments in Dagens Næringsliv on 12 January on the debate on power exports as follows:
“Conceptually, I believe that electricity is a primary need, and that it must be the responsibility of the state to control it. To let the free market control the flow to the people, you can not do that “, he says to the debate on power exports.
The “green inflation” is only getting worse
The power industry and politicians insist that the electricity price crisis we are experiencing now is completely exceptional and short-lived. They do not have board member Isabel Schnabel of the EU’s central bank ECB on her side.
Also she takes to say transition to renewable energy in a period where there is a shortage of supply of all kinds of energy:
– The transition to green energy is needed, but will create inflation. The “green inflation” is real. And not only is it a transitional phenomenon, it will get worse. Central banks have to respond to that, on a Saturday in ECBs virtual panel.
“While energy prices have fallen as fast as they rose in the past, the need to step up the fight against climate change may now mean that the price of fossil energy must not only remain at a high level, but must even continue to rise if we are to meet the objectives of the Paris Agreement “, Schnabel continued.
That they dare
Her home demands not only the Industry Action, but also over half a million people in several Facebook groups who protest against the price of electricity, that the government must do something about the problem itself, the liberalized power market.
Those who are now responsible for taking care of Eivind Reiten’s “exchange”, the governing parties Ap and Sp, live dangerously as long as they sit still and content themselves with pouring out crisis support to households, to show willingness to regulate power exports.
“It is not unnatural that we who sit with government responsibility are punished when people are hit by historically high electricity prices…”, said Labor deputy Bjørnar Skjæran when an opinion poll on Wednesday showed a dramatic drop in the party’s support to 18.9 percent, against 26.3 percent in the parliamentary elections last year.
The Center Party has sunk to become the country’s 5th largest party, so far passed by SV, and with Red breathing in its back.
That people are affected by historically high electricity prices does not come out of nowhere, but from the power liberalization and foreign cables that the Labor Party and the Center Party have been involved in. They do share the responsibility with other parties, but now it is the Labor Party and the Socialist People’s Party that rule.
As long as they let power exports run its liberal course, it seems that they prefer to earn big summers on power exports to the EU and the UK, rather than defend the incentive cheap, clean power to create value chains by using energy in Norway.
That they dare.
Thomas Vermes writes in ABC News on Sundays. Read more of his comments here.