– We need more control over the power. When the magazines are full and we have plenty of power, the prices should be far lower than they are now, says Eggum to news. He leads the LO giant Fellesforbundet, the largest employee organization in the private sector. Now he is intensifying the fight to force new power cuts for companies and the general public. The first item on the program is the Center Party’s national meeting in Trondheim this weekend. – We are extremely impatient and feel the pressure from our members. If this goes through winter and spring, I am afraid that there will be few red-green municipalities and counties in the autumn, he says. On tour, Eggum himself travels to Trondheim and the SP national meeting, equipped with freshly honed arguments and a variant of SV’s proposal for a new, state-owned electricity company. – It is a good idea to create a new “Statsstrøm AS” which can control Statkraft and be the market leader in keeping prices down, says Eggum now. The idea is that the new company should not operate with profit as its goal. Instead, it will be so large and capital-strong that it will be able to get favorable agreements in place with the power suppliers and thus ensure people and businesses low fixed price agreements. If Jørn Eggum now gets Sp with him, only the Labor Party remains to get a majority – and that is where the LO leaders themselves sit in the central government. Photo: Mats Rønning / news The state will simply use its own market power to push prices down, according to Eggum. – Statsstrøm must sell electricity to companies and households. When Statkraft is the largest company and is 100 per cent owned by the state, in many ways they can also set the price for what the other suppliers can offer to sell their power in the market, he claims. SV is already on board with the idea of a new state electricity company. After all, it was the party itself that first proposed such a move before Christmas in 2021. If Eggum now gets Sp with him, all that remains is the Labor Party to get a majority – and there the LO leaders themselves sit in the central government. – We will make good use of the national assembly spring. As for the national meeting of my own party in May, I am betting that we will have such a big impact that the Labor Party will also go for this, he says. 60s grip? But the new electricity company will also have to deal with market prices for electricity, so how will this move in itself lead to lower electricity prices? – We want a two-price system, where one price is set for necessary consumption and one price for additional consumption, which follows the spot price or market price. – A state electricity company – that sounds a bit 1960s? – I don’t think so. We have been very liberal after the Energy Act was passed in 1991. I think this is hardly what those sitting in the Storting at the time envisioned. This is about taking some of the power back under elected control. It is absolutely necessary. Fellesforbundet leader Jørn Eggum and LO leader Peggy Hessen Følsvik both sit on APS’s central board and have a strong influence over the government’s policy. Photo: Patrick da Silva Sæther / news The proposal is part of the recommendations from the Swedish Confederation’s own power committee, which presented its report at the end of February. When SV’s Lars Haltbrekken saw that the proposal for a state electricity company was on the list, he was very pleased: – It would ensure lower and more stable electricity prices, and at the same time remove the many electricity sales companies that have made it a specialty of deceiving people for money, said Haltbrekken to Børsen earlier this winter. Lunken Sp-top The Center Party’s deputy leader Ola Borten Moe, currently minister for research and higher education, has led the party’s resolution committee leading up to the national meeting. In the proposal for a power statement, there is nothing about a new state trading company. There is a better solution to do that the government is now in favor of, namely to pay out electricity support for 90 per cent above 70 øre, hour by hour rather than as a monthly average. – Households are then protected against unsustainable electricity prices. We have now reached the point where, in practice, it is the Storting that sets a ceiling for how high electricity prices must be. I can hardly imagine a stronger expression of national, democratic control, he says. SP deputy leader Ola Borten Moe believes the government’s response to the electricity crisis is better than the requirements from the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions. Photo: Javad Parsa / NTB Moe says that in practice there is also a two-price system today, in that no electricity subsidy is paid for consumption that exceeds 5,000 kilowatt hours. But at the grassroots in the party and among several county teams, there is great impatience. A number of SP county associations have put forward proposals for radical changes to the electricity subsidy scheme at the national meeting. Results In addition to the state electricity company and a two-price system that differentiates between necessary and excess consumption, Fellesforbundet will have a maximum price for electricity – as many in the Center Party have also advocated. Fellesforbundet also supports the old SP proposal for a separate price range for the foreign cables, which parliamentary leader Marit Arnstad has previously opened up for. When asked how such a move would be compatible with the EEA Agreement, he answers as follows: – The EEA Agreement gets other interpreters. But we believe this should be possible. Other countries have done it. Eggum believes the government has acted too slowly in dealing with the electricity crisis. – Changes are absolutely necessary to ensure that companies and most people can plan for what they will pay in electricity bills and not hesitate to open the letterbox and sit indoors with their jacket on, he says.
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LO-topp takes the fight to Sp – demands state power company – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
