Åslaug Haga will fill a bottomless bucket

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Renewed Norway’s leader, Aslaug Haga, is clearly not concerned about the natural values ​​and livelihoods that will be lost. But wind energy advocates also face another problem: their theories don’t make sense.

Haga claims that we should build wind energy because we lack the energy. She urges the municipal council to “take responsibility” by sacrificing more nature, and threatens fewer jobs and less income for municipalities if they refuse.

First, we already have unacceptably high electricity prices, even though we have a strong energy surplus. When our mainland industry and many others are at risk of closure, it is because the price of electricity is set on an exchange in the European market, not based on the cost of producing electricity here at home. The price of electricity does not decrease by producing more energy in Norwegian municipalities as long as we do not control prices and take electricity off the exchange.

Second, Haga and Norwegian Renewable do not have a reliable calculation of how much energy will be needed in the future, and how we will cover it. The first step towards being able to make such a calculation is to actually prioritize where the stream will go, and prioritize what is less important or not at all necessary.

After all, there is no way to achieve what some people want to use electricity for: electrification of shelves, large-scale exports abroad, cryptocurrencies, heating of cabin garages, to name a few. Today, it is first come first served that applies, not social benefit or environmental benefit.

Instead of presenting a frightening and semi-calculating picture, Renewable Norway should engage in a serious debate about how we can better use the electricity we already have, and how we can impose popular democratic control over electricity prices, production and use. electricity . Everything else is trying to fill a bucket that lacks a bottom.