– It’s too late, says Gerd-Liv Valla, stream activist who expects immediate political action. – There are a number of things we know we have to do. Then it’s much better to just do it instead of drifting from redoubt to redoubt. She is one of several close to the government who are putting pressure on the Labor Party-led government. Prime Minister Støre’s crew is currently working on measures to solve an increasingly demanding electricity crisis. Export freeze and support Valla himself sat as a minister and in other roles in the government apparatus for the Labor Party in the 90s, but is best known as a powerful LO leader from 2001 to 2007. Facts about Gerd-Liv Valla Born 25 January 1948 in Korgen, Nordland. Trained political scientist. Divorced, one daughter. Valla has worked as a university lecturer and office manager and has held a number of political and organizational positions, primarily in the Labor Party and the trade union movement. She was Minister of Justice under Thorbjørn Jagland’s Labor government in 1997. Valla was elected deputy leader of LO in 1997 and became the organization’s first female leader when she took over from Yngve Hågensen in 2001. Valla was also the first LO leader with a background in academia and public sector. She resigned as LO leader in March 2007 as a result of the so-called Yssen case and out of concern for her own health. (Source: NTB, Wikipedia) In an interview with news, she highlighted three measures that she believes should come long before the government’s energy commission presents its report in December. Electricity support for those parts of the business world that do not receive support today. Introduce a maximum price for electricity. Instruct the power industry to limit exports. Straum is a basic good. – But this is a complex system that the government is working hard on. – I understand that it is complex. But in crisis situations, you have managed to do things quickly before. Now you have to listen to all the signals coming in, for example from small businesses. Fight for the industry INDUSTRIAL KAMP: Valla pictured on 1 May 2019. Photo: Wilhelm Støylen / news – Give us a maximum price for basic consumption. Max 50 cents! urges Valla with the Støre government as addressee. The now 74-year-old Valla has become involved in energy policy through his participation in the “Alternative Energy Commission”. This group is discredited by the “Industry action”, which is an action created based on LO and the trade union. They work to focus on the conditions for Norwegian industry. And access to reasonable power is absolutely central. At a time of year when we normally have cheap electricity, the prices in southern Norway this week have almost broken the dizzying records from last winter. At the same time, today’s statistics show that the degree of filling in the reservoirs in East and South-West Norway is at the lowest level measured in week 30 of the last 20 years. No wonder there are demands for political action. Many of the loudest cries now come from the government’s own. Valla believes that you can introduce a maximum price scheme, but that you can also have a two-price system which means that you limit luxury consumption. Looking to France The power cables between Norway and abroad have taken up an important part of the debate. But there is great disagreement about how much they affect Norwegian prices. In Valla’s view, it is obvious that the cables drive the prices. She thinks we should be inspired by France. The country is a power exporter, primarily of nuclear power, but the power producers are required to prioritize domestic customers. Professor Øystein Noreng has described the system in Klassekampen. President Macron’s government has also introduced a maximum price scheme. FRENCH ATOMIC POWER: Gerv-Liv Valla believes there is something to learn from France. Photo: BENOIT TESSIER / Reuters – When France both introduces a maximum price and instructs producers to prioritize domestic customers, I don’t understand why we can’t do the same, says Valla. If we don’t have the tools and laws we need, then we have to get them. In an interview with NTB last week, Jonas Gahr Støre suggested to the public that we may have high electricity prices for several years to come because Europe is in an energy crisis. But even if Norway is aware of the “price contagion” from a crisis-ridden Europe, Støre is crystal clear about news. He believes that the answer to the power crisis is not to narrow the power paths between us and the continent. – Very little is sent out of the country. Last week, more came in than went out, says Støre. And he points out that the power industry has been notified: – We have clear expectations of the power companies that they fill up the water reservoir now. While they do that, not much power is produced or exported. – The government has asked the power companies to limit the tapping, and Støre says exports are not the problem, Valla? – The magazines are almost empty, and it is still exported in buckets and pails while the power companies rake in billions. Then I don’t understand why we can’t get a maximum price and immediate current support for business, says Valla. – The government is now fully active to handle the situation, we are looking at support for households and measures for businesses, Støre counters to news. According to the Minister of Oil and Energy in Dagbladet, measures are also being taken to limit exports and prevent water reservoirs from being filled too low. But Valla does not think people have confidence in a government that takes its time and struggles to explain the connections. – Støre is a wise man, but he has a big problem with explanations. If you are going to run a policy for ordinary people, then you have to be able to explain this to us ordinary people. I have said that one is perhaps a little too afraid to step on the EU’s toes, she says and refers to an interview she did with the newspaper Nationen in July. Støre: – Depending on cooperation The Prime Minister believes that our country is dependent on both importing and exporting power and maintaining good cooperation in the energy area. COOPERATION: Jonas Gahr Støre does not want to limit power exports too much. – Exports from Norway are now at a record low compared to previous years. Norway can have dry years, and we depend on being able to have trade with the countries around us, we cannot cut that out. The latest power situation report from NVE shows, as Støre says, that we have exported less power to Norway this year than last year. From southern Norway, where the problem has been greatest, net exports are 6 TWh less than last year. (The Norwegian need for power is around 140 TWh a year.) But the same report also shows the big problem with too little water in the dams that give us hydropower. Production in the south is a full 11.5 TWh less than at the same time last year. In other words: power exports to other countries have not been reduced as much as the drop in production. And in a situation with rising prices, Norway exported more abroad in the penultimate week of July (week 29) than in the previous week, the report shows. – Why not just close the export? – Last week, more power came into the country than went out. We depend on that exchange when there is a dry year, as we have now. But that’s why we have to get the magazine filling up, we’re working on that. The long picture is that we must produce more renewable power in Norway. – Valla thinks you are too good a friend of the EU to close the export of electricity. – That must be her point of view, says Støre about her who was one of the most prominent opponents of the EU in the party. – I look after Norwegian interests. We take the necessary measures to ensure security of supply, but it is also in Norway’s interest to have good relations with the countries around us. We need power from the countries around us when we have dry years and shortages. Then we cannot say that we shut them out, we have to be in good cooperation with them, elaborates the Prime Minister. But Valla is not impressed by the power of action. – There is no doubt that this is the issue that makes Sp and Ap struggle in the polls. I think what we are seeing now is devastating for the election in a year’s time.
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LO-Valla chastises the government for stream passivity – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
