A great Gallic Whine!

 

I submitted this as a comment to The Guardian, who  declined to publish it.

 

Zoe Williams is right to argue we need to think beyond the greed of the Big Six for a sustainable energy future. (“Want an energy revolution? Think beyond the big six,” 13 Nov.)

It is worth comparing and contrasting biggest of the Big Six, the French State-owned EDF's great Gallic whine over paying so-called green taxes and levies, with their success in committing future Governments to at least double the price of electricity to consumers, via the Strike Price deal for the new Hinkley Point C nuclear plant, the details of which are protected from public gaze by the overwhelming priority of commercial confidentiality.

As usual, commercial interests are put before the public interest.

Your correspondent Andrew Broadbent of CES Ltd Economic and Social research (“Fallout from the Hinkley Point decision,” 23 October,  
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/22/fallout-hinkley-point-decision) cogently argued this deal “begins to look like a ‘nuclear at any price’ Faustian pact, but it is the true measure of the cost of nuclear.”

I can only agree with his sensible conclusion that  the only hope of some economic rationality is that the state-aided distortion of the power market by this preferential deal will be declared illegal by the European Commission’s competition directorate.