Energy and bills, what to do? The debate only on Affaritaliani.it. The proposals of the League after the former minister Alberto Clò, the former Eni executive Carollo, the green Angelo Bonelli, Nicola Procaccini of FdI, Chiara Braga of the Pd and Gianni Girotto M5S
There are companies that have gone from 40,000 euros a month in energy costs to 120,000. Everyone says we close so as not to sell the walls too. People will end up out of work. Paolo Arrigoni becomes minister of energy. How do you avoid disaster?
“We are now well over 12 times the pre-Covid cost levels. Businesses have already absorbed profits but are no longer making it and so are families. The situation is dramatic but we must avoid making demagogic proposals. The country must have a strategic vision and a pragmatic approach. We must intervene promptly by extending and strengthening the measures that have been adopted with various measures put in place by the Draghi government, allocating 45 billion euros and which have short deadlines. On 20 September for fuels, the reduction of excise duties, on 30 September for corporate tax credits. On 30 September Arera will have to decide the tariffs of the protected market for the last quarter and almost doubling increases have been announced, so, I repeat, the measures contained in the Aid Bis decree must be extended and strengthened. The League says that the extra VAT revenue must be used, perhaps pending a decoupling of the energy produced by renewable energy sources and those produced by gas and the extra profits that banks and financial intermediaries are also making must be taxed “
There is a problem in the short term: brute survival …
“We need to integrate the current figures with another 30 billion and also with a possible budget variance, to avoid that in 2-3 months the state has to pay double or triple to cope with the collapse of businesses and social problems. One of the immediate measures is to suspend the ETS mechanism, the payment of the CO2 emissions passed on to companies and which affects the price of electricity by 30%. Then we ask for a Price Cap at the European level. We do not believe, as the left and Letta argued, that a Price Cap can be introduced at national level because Europe is interconnected. There are these emergency measures to be implemented immediately after which infrastructure measures are needed to reduce the imbalance between gas supply and demand “
But will there be time to do all these things? Businesses tell us: look, we close immediately and leave everyone at home …
“We have to do it. What happens are the side effects of an ecological catastrophism that has wreaked havoc with the alarm on climate change, changes that we absolutely do not deny because we believe in decarbonisation but must be done gradually. It is important to understand why we came here to move differently. In the last 15-20 years in Italy and in Europe it has divested itself on the gas that has been considered the dark evil, then there is a problem of lack of matter. For example: 15 years ago China consumed the gas that Italy consumes, now it consumes what Europe consumes, so there is an imbalance between supply and demand on the market “
However, families and businesses cannot wait for the bureaucratic delusions of the state by presenting the questionnaire, studying the annotations, the criteria, the sub-annotations. Or do you lower the price at the source or put in everyone’s pockets, regardless of the work done, sums to make up for the situation or not?
“We’ve been saying this for months. The European Commission has asked for a feasibility study for the Price Gap since June-July. They set the meeting for the end of October to talk about it, I don’t know if I give the idea … “
Are we dying waiting for Europe to do something?
“No, we need to raise this alarm. In anticipation of 9 September I know that there is a meeting behind closed doors, not extended to all the countries of the European Union and there we must find a solution for the European Price Cap, from here it all comes. Another measure, in addition to those I mentioned, is to put pressure on the price of gas. We need to go to full capacity with coal plants, the few that are left. We wanted to close everything while Germany was talking about doing so in 2038. 30% of their energy mix is still produced with coal plants, instead we … “
In Europe everyone pursues his own interests which often do not coincide with ours. But if the center-right wins, do you think Europe is your ally or will it hinder you? Already now Holland and the other countries of Northern Europe are contrasting countries like Italy, let’s imagine later. And what are the pressure tools that you can use, who are not in the majority in Europe anyway?
“Common sense and the desert that will materialize in the autumn and what I said before is valid”
But are we condemned to closure then?
“We don’t have to bow to this. If anything, we also give subsidies to businesses that were clearly forced to close “
And what do you do? Do you leave Europe?
“No, you are in it as well as in the Atlantic Alliance. The problem is the idea of the ecological transition wanted by the left, the Democratic Party and the 5 Stars without looking at energy survival but only at the environment. We say that perhaps today the goal of decarbonization must wait “
Do we at least need clear announcements from the European side?
“Yes, look at the moment when Germany, two or three days ago, declared itself a possibility on the Price Cap: it caused a fall in the price on the TTF Stock Exchange. Probably if a revision of the decarbonization objectives were announced temporarily in order to overcome this European alarm, but above all Italian, the price would probably drop drastically and we would return to investing in infrastructures that are fundamental to Europe. I mean: if we invest only in renewables, which then depend on weather conditions, we won’t go anywhere “
What timeframe do you foresee for emergency interventions? Because it promises to be a desert that will ensure that businesses will be in the hands of creditors …
“We need money, taxes on extra-profits, let’s add taxation to banks and financial intermediaries and then integrate with a budget variance. Better to invest 30 billion today rather than pay double or triple in a few months in the face of a desert linked to the closure of many businesses, with workers placed on layoffs. The government, of which I am not a member but which must intervene within days, will have to decide whether to commit other resources as we believe should be done, otherwise the country is on its knees “
A party like yours, very tied to the territory, would find Chinese and foreigners ready to buy Italy … for nothing. National sovereignty would also be lacking …
“Yes, a national sovereignty that we have given up almost entirely in recent years. We did not invest in gas thinking it would be possible to protect the environment. Now, 20 years later, we realize that costs have increased. Energy dependence on gas has increased to 96%, we have tied hands and feet to Russia where we have gone from 30% of Russian supplies to 40%. We stopped our investments and polluted more with LNG carriers that have traveled hundreds of kilometers polluting, a disaster. We need to be aware of it “
We are famous for creativity and for finding impossible solutions. It would take a shot of the kidney with new ideas. Would we be the leader of a new approach to get us out of this situation or is everything still in progress, in your opinion?
“Creativity is in the nature of our people. But it takes pragmatism, as I said “
The doubt is that Europe is going in a completely different direction. Leaders make announcements, without having done much, to prepare us for an apocalyptic winter to intervene after the fact. The situation in Greece is repeated …
“Exactly, a part of Europe has not yet understood. For example, they continue to insist on banning internal combustion cars in favor of electric ones. But this is a crazy decision “
Moreover, for the technological ones we put ourselves in the hands of the Chinese …
“Not only with electric mobility but the same is true right now for other alternative technologies, for photovoltaics, inverters, wind turbines that require materials that are almost a monopoly of China …”
“Why this? Is there a level of pro-China interest in our leadership groups or is it an ideology?
“It is the environmentalist catastrophic ideology that thinks of combating climate change with these approaches. We are for the
decarbonisation but the process must be done in a pragmatic and gradual way, guaranteeing economic and social sustainability and technological neutrality. If I put all the technologies on the table, we will discover that nuclear is the one that produces the least CO2 emissions, if that is the goal. France pollutes a fifth less than Germany because it produces with nuclear power. If we start the plants today we could see them in 10 or 12 years but we have to start now “
In your opinion, after the Fukushima disaster, can Italians still rely on nuclear power, also taking into account the conflict of the political class?
“The problem was posed by her, the political conflict. Today everyone wants to help but there are very different ideas about the basic measures. A serious and rigorous debate, without prejudice, would also be needed on nuclear power. Japan, which after the Fukushima disaster had decided to close the nuclear chapter, today reopened many plants because it has realized that beyond the energy emergency there are few structural alternatives. We are aware that the Italians have spoken twice about nuclear power, but there are also other objectives and new technologies. If tomorrow we should gradually abandon gas, looking at the melting of glaciers, at climate change, the only alternative is nuclear power ”.
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