The Norwegian parliament (Storting) asked the former government for measures against high electricity prices already in February – but the government felt there was no need to act.
On February 23, the Storting requested that the government immediately “propose measures that can remedy the situation related to extraordinarily high electricity costs and quickly follow up with the Storting in a suitable manner,” Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reports.
Just over a month later, the then Minister of Finance, Jan Tore Sanner (H), replied that there was no need for further, immediate measures to remedy the situation.
“If they had done their job this spring, we would now have faced the electricity crisis with a whole set of electricity measures we could have implemented,” the Center Party’s (SP) Geir Pollestad stated. He believes it was an obvious misjudgment.
The response from the Conservative Party
However, Nikolai Astrup, the Conservative Party’s (H) representative in the Energy and Environment Committee, believes that there was nothing in February to suggest that the situation would develop as it has.
“There was no basis for putting forward extraordinary measures when the expectation was that the average electricity price would be 35 øre per kWh for 2021. I think everyone sees that,” he said.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews
Do you have a news tip for Norway Today? We want to hear it. Get in touch at [email protected]
Be the first to comment on "The Norwegian parliament requested electricity measures in February – but was ignored by the government"