“It’s an absolutely terrible situation.” evaluation Norway’s energy minister, Terje Aslund, spoke about the country’s electricity costs rising to record levels due to exports to the UK, Germany, Denmark and other European countries.

This is the outcome that many had warned the Norwegian government would realize when it decided to build an interconnector to export electricity to the European Union and the UK. These critics were understandably ignored, as those in charge of Norway’s destiny at the time felt forced to comply with the demands of the EU and other globalist organizations.

Originated from Norway The majority Hydropower currently provides 90% of the country’s electricity generation. Most of the rest comes from wind power, and the country has significant excess power generation capacity most days. Therefore, all other factors being equal, it makes some economic sense to establish those interconnections in order to sell surplus to other countries.

But it only makes sense if other countries take care to ensure the continued health and adequacy of their power grids. This is certainly not the case in the UK or Germany, where both governments have in recent years abandoned the once-abundant reliable baseload capacity provided by coal-fired and nuclear power plants, leaving intermittent, weather-dependent has chosen to rely too heavily on wind power. solar.

Now, when the wind stops and the sun doesn’t shine, Norway’s electricity export customers use up the host country’s surplus, extremely high energy costs flow back upstream, and sky-high energy bills hit Norwegians hard. will give. It all came to a head this week when unusually cold temperatures and reduced wind speeds across mainland Europe led to higher electricity prices in Norway. spike It can reach up to 1.12 euros ($1.18) per kilowatt hour (kwh).

In comparison, the average electricity cost per kwh is in new york Texans are about 22 cents usually pay Approximately 15 cents per kwh. What the December 12 price hike meant for Norwegians: It now costs $5 to take a five-minute hot shower. Doing the same thing in Texas would cost about 16 cents.

Unsurprisingly, public anger in Norway over these unnecessarily high electricity prices is now causing policymakers to run for political patronage. of Financial Times coverage Both the ruling leftist Labor Party and the conservative Progressive Party are now planning to campaign next year on platforms that would limit or halt electricity exports via these international interconnectors.

This prospect is sure to strike fear into the hearts of central planners in both Germany and the UK, where electricity imports from Norway play a central role in their countries’ emissions reduction plans. These plans include intentionally sabotaging reliable baseload power plants and forcing significant increases in the cost of electricity, resulting in heavy industries such as steel and other manufacturing being disrupted by the country. will be withdrawn from. In this way, these governments are effectively exporting their emissions to China, which serves as a home for heavy industry and provides electricity with the coal-fired power plants built each year. I’m too happy about it.

California Governor Gavin Newsom and his fellow Democrats pursued essentially the same strategy in California earlier this century, with predictable results. Californians pay some of the highest electricity rates in the country as the power grid becomes overloaded with intermittent generation and becomes more dependent on electricity. Imports from other states. Rather than exporting emissions to China, California exports them to Nevada, Utah, and other U.S. states.

For the past four years, the Biden administration has been trying to drag the entire country down this same economically destructive path. Fortunately, this year voters woke up at the right time and avoided the most damaging effects currently being seen in Germany and the UK.

For Norway, is this an example of the law of unintended consequences kicking in? To some degree, of course. But it is also a clear example of the entirely foreseeable consequences of poor policy decisions by multiple national governments across borders. This entire “terrible situation” was avoidable and frankly should have been.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, specializing in public policy and communications.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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