This summer I went to Aurlandsdalen. It is a strenuous hike. Almost two miles through the best of Norwegian mountain nature. Rivers and rapids. Potholes and trees clinging to the steep mountain sides. Pure white cascading and occasionally turquoise water. A roaring river full of energy that is given free rein in waterfalls and wild rapids down through the valley. Almost impossible paths trodden by the ancestors. Tufts of old farms and stables. It’s like walking through what Norway is made of. A wild nature that demands a lot from people who want to survive without freezing. At Vassbygdi the valley opens up. It is like walking from what we came from to what we have become. Asphalt and noise from cars. Some fueled by the oil tax we found. Others powered by electricity from water that has been tamed. Aurland is also a symbol of that. Water that is tamed. The power development in Aurland happened around the time we found oil. Production at Aurland power station, Norway’s third largest, started in 1973 after the first civil disobedience in Norwegian history had been put down. People wanted free nature, then as now. National highway 50, which connects west with east, was part of the power development. It clings from Aurland up a steep mountainside that is full of incomprehensible power lines. I know what is required. My first summer job in 1971 was at Ringerike power station. Line work. It was heavy. I don’t understand how they have managed to build almost vertical power lines with spans of several hundred metres. Up on the mountain, the national road winds east. The power lines cut through the mountain landscape. Impounded water. The symbol of Norwegian prosperity and the power that has built the country. What started when Sam Eyde became the godfather of the industrial adventure at fabled Vemork. Hydro built the world’s largest power plant there in 1911 to produce artificial fertiliser. Eyde realized that hydropower was an advantage that gave Norway opportunities. That power as a raw material made it possible to build power-intensive industry in Norway more cheaply than in any other country. He understood that the stream belonged to the people. That electricity could become an infrastructure that gave Norwegians prosperity, growth and warmth. The people did not have to freeze. In my childhood in the early sixties, we only fired with wood. There was no capacity in the network for heating with electricity. I remember several Christmas evenings where my mother made emergency plans for how the Christmas dinners could be carried out when the network was overloaded so that the power went out. That’s why my father built a house with oil heating. Safe, predictable and future-oriented heating. After 1 January 2020, it is forbidden to fire with fossil oil and kerosene. From then on, we use electricity for heating in Norway. For many the only option. After the watershed, highway 50 descends gently towards Strandavatnet. It is a dammed reservoir and covers almost 25 square kilometers. In 1943 the water was dammed up and in 1957 the level was increased from 3 to 28 metres. The water, which is normally a large sparkling lake, now appears as a stone desert after senseless draining. Now it is so dry that it resembles environmental crime. What was once an island juts up like an out-of-place bouta with a green hat on top of a giant rock pile. If you look closer, you can also spot the remains of the many mountain farms that were dammed up in the stone desert. Using your imagination, you can sense how beautiful the area must have been. Gentle mountain sides down towards mountain farms, stilts and small bodies of water. A river that once flowed freely down towards Hol and Hallingdal, exactly where the huge dam, almost 40 meters high and over 100 meters wide, now stands. The dam holds Strandavatnet in place. The water that is now a desert. Power development leaves its mark. Transformation of the landscape. Misplaced power lines and industrial installations that do not belong in nature. We as a people have renounced all this and exchanged it for the power and infrastructure that was ours. Traded it for prosperity and security! Norwegian electricity is not like any commodity that can be sold to the highest bidder in a free market. But this piece of art – or abuse – our politicians have managed. The politicians have sold our prosperity so that many are wondering if they will have to freeze this winter. So that traders and business owners fear that state- and municipal-owned power plants will bankrupt them because they cannot pay for the electricity! It is as if someone has stolen the nation’s heritage and sacrificed our history and infrastructure for financial gain in a speculative energy market. Even super-capitalist Øystein Stray Spetalen tells Dagbladet that electricity and the oil adventure are based on the same principles, namely state ownership and control. He believes that capitalism does not work when it comes to infrastructure and says: The problem with the electricity market is that it is free. It must be strictly regulated! If you walk Aurlandsdalen, you will understand that the electricity belongs to the community and why the government and the Storting, through the Energy Act, are required to manage it for the good of the Norwegian people. That’s not happening now. In Norway, we must keep warm and run businesses with cheap electricity. Then we all get to save as much as we can, and export the power surplus, but without importing the crazy electricity prices that are about to knock the legs out from under us all. Cheap and clean electricity is our father’s legacy! Woe to him who steals it!
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Someone has stolen our father’s heritage – Speech
