The first proposal of the legislature to re-create a public electricity company has not achieved this Tuesday the necessary support to begin its parliamentary process. The initiative, proposed by one of the partners of the coalition government, United We Can, has been rejected instead by the majority ally of the Executive, the PSOE, which, joining its votes to those of the PP, Vox, Citizens or PNV will knock down this afternoon the alternative of the confederal group to try to stop the incessant increase in the price of electricity.
Iberdrola reopens the battle of the social bond in the midst of the electricity crisis and demands to charge it to the State
Know more
The bill has had the support of partner parties of the Government both in the investiture and the Budgets such as ERC, EH Bildu and Compromís, in addition to the BNG. The law was limited, specifically, to the regulation of the management of the hydraulic public domain, once the corresponding concessions had expired, and contemplated the creation of a public business entity called Production of Spanish Energy, EPE
The proposal included setting up this company “within a maximum period of one year from the entry into force of the law” and planned to produce electricity “by taking over the hydroelectric plants with completed concessions and will carry out the creation of new installations of renewable energy”. In its articles, the bill established that the company would be financed “majority” with the income derived from the production and commercialization of hydroelectric energy, to which resources from the General State Budgets may be added.
“If there is something that does not fit them in our law, we negotiate during the parliamentary process and modify it,” the spokesman for United We Can, Pablo Echenique, told the Socialist deputies. “We have no problem. But preventing Congress from even processing the creation of a public energy company is something that only benefits the mafia oligopoly and those who, in front of the mirror, are already trying on the bison hat,” he settled. . He didn’t make it.
The arguments of the PSOE
The socialist deputy who defended the position of his party was clear. “They don’t say how or for what reason a public company is going to make energy cheaper,” Germán Renau criticized the deputies of United We Can. “To fight against energy poverty, what is needed is to increase the social bonus, fair taxation and a regulatory framework, not a public company,” the PSOE parliamentarian has settled, criticizing that the confederal group’s is “a plan to 20 years”.
During the defense of his initiative, Echenique recalled that Spain “has three great challenges in terms of energy”. “In the first place and the most urgent: lower the electricity bill that is suffocating families and small businesses. But also, carry out an energy transition towards renewable sources and increase, in this way, our energy sovereignty and security. “.
“With the conflict between the US and Russia, I think we have all learned how dangerous it is that our energy supply depends on third countries and the geostrategic conflicts that may arise. But these challenges – fair prices, green transition and sovereignty – it is impossible that be undertaken with more than 80% of our electrical system in the hands of a mafia oligopoly. Yes, mafioso. I know that the adjective is harsh, but it is precise”, added Echenique, “and not only because Mr. Ignacio Sánchez Galán, president of Iberdrola, has been accused of hiring Villarejo to blackmail his business rivals”.
The spokesperson for United We Can recalled that “the electricity oligopoly has been fined on numerous occasions by the CNMC for illegally manipulating prices, they have emptied reservoirs to make a fortune by selling hydroelectric MWh at gas prices and leaving entire regions without water and have threatened Spain with turning off nuclear power when the government has made laws that were not to its liking.”
Partner support
However, in his opinion, “it is imperative to oppose a large public energy company that protects the general interest.” It is not about “any radical approach”, according to Echenique, “but it is normal in the developed world”. “The OECD average is that the states participate in 40% of the shareholding of the companies. In Spain, however, we are below 5% and we are the second most privatized electricity market, only behind Portugal.”
“In Spain,” he added, “the privatized Endesa, undersold to the Italians and revolving door of the illustrious Aznar, distributes 1,400 million in dividends while squeezing families. This is unfair, uneconomical and has to end. Spain needs a public energy company.
United We Can has achieved the support of ERC. His deputy, Carles Capdevila, has considered that “a profound change in the energy model is necessary”, which in his opinion “inevitably involves restructuring the current model with public control, free of monopolies and that sets prices”. “The scope of this initiative, even though it is necessary, is limited. We are talking about 12% of energy,” emphasized Oskar Matute, from EH Bildu, who has nevertheless supported taking the law into consideration.
www.eldiario.es