Democracy or Demagogy?

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Posted July 29, 2008 with 181 reads

Keywords: belgian government, belgium, creg, electrabel, electricity, energy supply, environmental issues, epa, gas, minister, nuclear power, politicians, power plants

I’ve already mentioned that the strange ideas politicians have when they make decisions when it comes to environmental issues doesn’t show any outstanding ability in this field, but more bent on self-preservation or some hazy interest instead of the people who elected them to represent. I’ve given examples of this on town level and a regional level, but it doesn’t stop there. On a governmental level one does seem to fall to one’s knees before companies. A perfect example is the former state owned power supply company called Electrabel, currently owned by Suez. One used to refer to it as the nation within the nation and that is still the case. Electrabel’s word is law and politicians tremble like a leaf when they have a meeting with them.

The Belgian government voted in 2002 a law to abandon nuclear power and stated that “The nuclear power plants intended for industrial electricity generation by fission of nuclear fuel, will be deactivated forty years after date of entry into their industrial and can no longer produce electricity”. This will probably happen between 2015 and 2025 for all Belgian nuclear power plants. One has made several attempts not to implement and thus cancel out this law. Officially, the main reason is that, since Belgium generates 55% of its electricity via a nuclear way, there is not enough alternative capacity in order to close the plants. One spent a lot of money in studies to prove this. Money which is better spent in research and installation of these (environmental friendly) alternatives. One even states that the low-tension network suffers from all this renewable energy as you could read in my earlier blog.

photo credit: Kris Taeleman

The real truth is that Electrabel doesn’t want these nuclear power plants to be closed. Built with tax money, they are already marked down (for depreciation) for years now and thus each day that those plants remain open are extra profit. And they make a lot of profit: 2 billion euro a year and if that’s not enough they let pay the consumers more and more each year. They can do this since the so called free market comes to a nearly monopoly for Electrabel with a few minor players at the sideline.

Why does Electrabel have so much power? First of all, there are the consumers who are too lazy and don’t care to bother to look for alternative providers, no matter how much Electrabel charges them (more than others). Secondly, as said Electrabel was the state owned power supplier. Based on that historical fact, it was and still is the natural partner of the towns and cities and many councils get their income from that ‘cooperation’. So the politicians are cornered. If they dare to take some action, they’ll queer their own pitch then. That makes Electrabel rather powerful.

That showed again lately. The federal government thought to fill the deficit in treasury a bit with an extra tax for Electrabel. Officially it was a VOLUNTARY - yes, you’ve read it right - contribution of 250 million Euro, which is peanuts compared with the above mentioned profits. But since it was voluntary, Electrabel wasn’t eager to pay this just like that. One of the stumbling block was the fact the CREG (the ‘independent’ energy supply regulator) ordered the gas companies to diminish the gas transit tariffs which would result in a lower invoice for the end user. 75% of the gas transportation is done via Distrigas - which is part of the of Electrabel - and would result in 600 million profit. So the federal government overruled the decision by the CREG.

The minister for energy thought that he was a good negotiator and he announced, beaming with pride, that he had an agreement. He seemed somewhat to forget to put things on paper because Electrabel denied most emphatically that there was an consensus at all. In order to save his face, the minister said then that the tax was no longer voluntary. But the other parties in the government blew the whistle on the minister and even took the dossier away from the minister. End result: no tax at all. The good thing though is that the decision by the CREG to lower the gas transit tariffs will become reality after all (some day). There is some dispute now on who’s the initiator taking the credits towards the end user. Meanwhile Belgium doesn’t get - also due to the political unstable situation - a golden share in the Suez-Gaz De France, despite as agreed in the Pax Electra II agreements. Such a share should protect the Belgian interests and to ensure energy supply to Belgium. And if that’s not enough, Gaz De France threatens to relocate their gas hub if the government wants to take of their majority particapation share of the liquid gas terminals in Zeebrugge (Flanders).

As you can see, when you get down to the nitty-gritty of the matter not you nor the environment counts. The only thing that really matters are the companies and their profits. They use every possible (political) means in order to achieve this. The Belgian example is of course peanuts compared to the White House trying to silence the EPA, the Pentagon fighting the EPA, UN delegates reject toxic waste ban or Exxon gets away with things. Again, I’ve nothing against economy and making profit. But I’m wondering in what kind of world I’m living in and how things can go so far.