euro|topics - Europe's answer to the energy crisis

05/07/2009

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Main focus of Friday, June 13, 2008

Europe's answer to the energy crisis

Record prices for crude oil, expensive petrol, rising gas prices: for months the world has been in the grips of an energy crisis. How should Europe react?

El País - Spain

The Portuguese Minister for Economic Affairs Manuel Pinho calls for a common European solution to the energy crisis: "[The rising oil prices] are particularly affecting low-income families and the most vulnerable companies. We cannot just shrug our shoulders and turn our backs on the situation. An answer is required at the European level. ... Because we are facing structural changes we must respond with structural measures. We can do nothing to alter the fact that the times of cheap energy have come to an end. The solution lies in renewable energies, in efficient consumption and in modernising our transportation systems. And also in creating more transparent markets with stronger competition." (13/06/2008)

Elsevier - Netherlands

The Dutch government sees wind energy as a serious alternative to fossil fuels. "Windmills are castles in the sky", counters the magazine, demanding an end to subsidies for wind energy. "The view that windmills are an attractive source of energy that could significantly reduce Dutch dependence on oil and gas is one of the most expensive myths of the day. ... Windmills are the holy cow of the environmental movement, but they can play no more than a marginal role. There is little energy in wind, and the techology has reached its limits. The only way to make it more profitable is to build higher and cheaper windmills. But the key objection is that often there is no wind at all (in rural areas for roughly four months per year), and then the electricity must come from other sources. So it is pointless. ... It is not wind that turns windmills, but subsidies." (13/06/2008)

Rzeczpospolita - Poland

The conservative daily calls for an end to subsidies for biofuels and increased use of nuclear energy. "If biofuels were no longer subsidised, the price for maize could go down by 20 percent for instance. Moreover the energy yield of biofuels is only moderate while their impact on the environment is considerable. It would be better to build nuclear power stations to replace oil and gas as energy sources and thus sink prices to the extent that biofuels lose their relevance. Food prices would then go down too. More nuclear energy means less poverty." (13/06/2008)

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

Europe is equipped for the end of the oil age, writes Jörg Häntzschel, but America's mobile society will soon become too expensive: "This wild, vast country was transformed by a hyper-efficient metastructure of traffic systems. ... Now, however, traffic flows in this infrastructural organism are slowing to a trickle. The worst hit is air traffic. ... Even in the best of times, Europe never departed from its culture of moderation. By contrast, America must now turn its back on the rampant splurges of the last two decades. The country is in for a bumpy ride. ... Not only does Europe have a functioning public transport system, it can also fall back on its old city structures when necessary. America has practically surrendered itself to oil. ... One day the drive to work will no longer be worthwhile. A paltry rural existence awaits those bereft of their livelihood and freedom of movement. America's map was drawn by cheap oil. Now it is being redesigned." (13/06/2008)

» To the complete press review of Friday, June 13, 2008

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