In the morning, I often enjoy listening to Bayern 2 on the radio: die Radiowelt. Today, everybody seems to be upset about the price of electrical energy. I see that a little more diverse:
As I perceive it, a quite substantial “Inflation” is taking place. No matter if I go eating out or go places by underground train, everything gets more expensive. Even electronics products, such as mobile phones and laptops do not seem to get less expensive if you take the “State of the Art” into consideration. Not to mention realty. Salaries and incomes, too, are on the way up, at least nominally (wage agreements, doctors). To make up for it, the small number of poor persons grows.
This inflationary situation – even if statistics cheat to make it look lower – is quite easily explained. Just look at the money policy of the EU administration. Or the development in other currency zones, such as the dollar, the RMB (Chinese yuan), or other economies with whatever small currency you choose to look at. All over the place, prices climb. Be it in China, the USA, or elsewhere. And, after all, we are part of a globalized world, aren’t we?
If, in an environment of inflation, a product kept its price stable, it would in fact get less expensive. The only way I could say something got more expensive would be if the increase in price were considerably above the inflation rate. Under this light, all you should be able to say is you have a relative price increase, one that remains after you have considered the “true” inflation rate.
Looking at the increase in prices for oil, you notice that the price for electrical energy is actually far behind. As I see it, it is a good idea to have the price of electrical energy climb as long as most of it is still produced from fossil materials. When, at long last, the moment arrives when we can produce electrical energy exclusively in an environment-friendly way, it should be cheaper.
For me, however, it seems doubtful that this will ever be possible to the extent we allegedly need it. That means it is still absolutely obligatory for us to treat energy in a responsible and efficient way. And that is an area where regulations and laws are mostly not really helpful. Sad as it may be, it is a fact that rational thinking mostly only happens through the purse (like a man’s heart is won through the stomach).
What is really annoying, however, is the fact that we now have a modified co-called electrical network regulation (StromNEV). It says that those enterprises that use up more than ten Gigawatts of electricity each year and need the full capacity for a minimum of 7,000 hours each year will no longer have to pay the network organizations for the transport of electrical energy, which, basically, is an additional subsidy. And the number of these big subsidies has increased drastically.
This caused Germany to become an expensive country in terms of electricity for those who need small amounts. Yet, for those who need huge amounts, it is rather attractive.
Naturally, those who use up small amounts are now worse of in terms of money, while we are counter-acting the goal of using energy more efficiently on a huge scale. Incidentally, this has nothing at all in common with an about-face in the energy sector. All it means is another subsidy for dedicated interest groups.
It sounded like a confirmation to me when, this very morning, I heard a CSU politician say on the radio that even Norwegian enterprises now started transferring their electricity-intense production parts to Germany.…
Incidentally, the author assumes – and I am sure this is totally unprofessional – that most of the enterprises that use up huge amounts of electricity need it for such “reasonable” things as the production of beer and drinks cans. That alone makes me furious. Because beer is definitely one of those things that you must never drink out of cans. Mind you, our throw-away society is something I detest, anyway.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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