Thread by @gerardreid14

With #European energy prices at extreme levels, there are huge risks that could destabilise the whole social, economic, and political fabric of #Europe. 6 Things we need do:

1. Help Customers Save Energy
We need to help change customer behaviour and run pan #European marketing campaigns to explain the #energy challenge. I call this a “Save Energy to Save Europe,” campaign.

#Financial incentives should be introduced to encourage energy efficiency noting that small incremental changes in demand could quickly bring prices down for everyone.

One way to do this would be to offer residential customers who reduce energy consumption by 30% #VAT rebates or to make the energy bill tax deductible. This would be easy to police as all that would be needed is for customers to send in the last two annual energy invoices.

2. Do Everything Possible to Increase the Supply of Gas
We need to increase #LNG imports as a top priority and need to build the necessary infrastructure to import and store, and to better transport gas across the continent.

Europe also needs to urgently increase gas production, especially for the next few years. This means reopening the #Groningen gas field in the Netherlands (pay residents to move), some of the North Sea gas fields

3. Introduce Emergency Measures to Bring Down Gas Prices
This starts with talking to #Norway, a member of NATO and a partner in the economic war with #Russia to ensure prices stay low.

This could be quite simple to implement, with the state owned #Equinor offering all its customers new contracts that are tied to the oil price or which are an average of the 2021 price.

With natural gas being bought in the US at $9 an MMBTU and being delivered to Rotterdam at $70 there is a need to scrutinise and forcefully regulate the activities, costs and profit margins of oil and gas players and traders to ensure that they are acting in public interest.

Another possibility is for European countries to band together into a ‘buyers’ cartel’ whereby a maximum price is put in place for purchases by all members as well as corporate buyers.

4. Provide Emergency Loan Facilities to Energy Companies
It is critical to provide loan facilities to energy companies, many of whom are finding it very difficult to access the necessary liquidity to fulfil future contracts and meet margin calls.

5. Ensure Alternatives to Gas Generation are Available
This year we are seeing significant increases in gas usage for power generation across Europe. This is poor usage of gas, which is more effectively, efficiently, and economically used for industry and home heating

To do this #Europe needs to ensure that everything from diesel gensets to batteries to coal power plants are used to ensure system resilience. The biggest issue however is #nuclear.

In #France, currently half the nuclear power plants are offline due to technical or maintenance issues. Bringing these plants back online safely is critical to ensure Europe can keep the lights on this winter and save gas.

One thing that could help is that Europe offers France technical support. In addition, there needs to be pressure put on the German government to allow the 3 existing nuclear power plants to run through this crisis as well as putting back online the 3 that were closed last year.

6. Borrow to Finance the Efforts

We need to revamp and rejuvenate our energy systems which is a great opportunity for Europe. This needs an action plan for what we should and should not invest in, as well as a plan on financing it.

We should also consider introducing War Bonds which should be designed to finance what could be a multi-year economic war with Russia as well as reduce our addiction to fossil fuels, and control inflation by taking money out of circulation.