Electricity prices: Railway company criticizes politics – salzburg.ORF.at
politics
If politicians take their appeals for environmental and climate protection seriously, then they should decouple the electricity price from the gas price and bring electricity prices down in a targeted manner. This is what the Salzburg logistics and railway entrepreneur Gunther Pitterka demands. His company is active in large parts of Europe.
The Salzburg entrepreneur Pitterka sends 81 locomotives and more than 900 goods wagons every day on the networks between Scandinavia, Slovenia and Bulgaria, eastern Poland, Germany and France – mainly for timber and container transport.
For centuries, the founder and owner of the Salzburg Railway Transport Company (SETG) has been promoting the relocation of goods and heavy transport – away from the roads and motorways.
“The EU and governments need to do much more”
Pitterka demands that energy companies should be put on a tighter leash. The Salzburger sees their references to the Ukraine war as a reason for the current price development mainly as an excuse – which politicians also follow. This had to end.
The EU and the state governments are doing far too little: “Our demand is also a cap for industry and business, the definition of a range in which the electricity price can move. Because ultimately this merit order principle, where everything is linked to the gas price, failed. There are many more gas-fired power plants in Germany than here. Ultimately, however, the production of electricity has not become more expensive. The system must be decoupled from the gas as soon as possible.”
Shift to rail in danger?
Environmentally friendly rail transport would currently be between 30 and 70 percent more expensive for the industries as customers. According to the Salzburg railway company, the price of electricity for locomotives has increased twelvefold in recent months: “We find this development just as scandalous as private households. So we see that too.”
Criticism of the specific situation in Salzburg
Gunther Pitterka cites the Salzburg region as an example of current contradictions. Here, the main supplier, which now earns the best, belongs to the largest part of the state and the city itself as a joint stock company – ultimately to all citizens via their politics. In addition, domestic hydropower has been expanded over decades – on the grounds of wanting to be more independent.
And yet far too little has been done to relieve the regional population and economy, criticizes the private Salzburg railway company, which operates throughout Europe.