UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
on 19 Mar 14:57
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So, one big juxtaposition is between Spain and the UK.
Both have access to natural gas reserves in the Atlantic. Both have enormous wind resources, due to their large coastlines. One of them has a government focused on keeping the retail price of energy low. Another has a government focused on keeping the profit generated by energy providers high.
The UK is seeing a surge in energy prices that has nothing to do with their actual supply of energy. They’re just pegging the retail price to the global spot price, because of decades of deregulation and rent-seeking. And because entrenched private interests hate competition, the roll-out of new energy supplies has been curtailed by a government incentivized to do nothing and allow the private sector to price gouge.
Spain’s real triumph is not simply its investment in domestic energy infrastructure but it’s socialist public policy with regard to energy pricing and distribution. The political rewards in keeping prices low has a knock-on effect of incentivizing the development of rapid new build-out in low-cost infrastructure.
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So, one big juxtaposition is between Spain and the UK.
Both have access to natural gas reserves in the Atlantic. Both have enormous wind resources, due to their large coastlines. One of them has a government focused on keeping the retail price of energy low. Another has a government focused on keeping the profit generated by energy providers high.
The UK is seeing a surge in energy prices that has nothing to do with their actual supply of energy. They’re just pegging the retail price to the global spot price, because of decades of deregulation and rent-seeking. And because entrenched private interests hate competition, the roll-out of new energy supplies has been curtailed by a government incentivized to do nothing and allow the private sector to price gouge.
Spain’s real triumph is not simply its investment in domestic energy infrastructure but it’s socialist public policy with regard to energy pricing and distribution. The political rewards in keeping prices low has a knock-on effect of incentivizing the development of rapid new build-out in low-cost infrastructure.
Recently watched an interview with Sanchez and I was quite impressed, especially in comparison to the UK meatheads.
There’s a reason we say we have a “Special Relationship” with the UK and not Spain.