Electricity: faced with soaring prices, a solution by mid-January

Lhe government must manage the health crisis, but also the scolding of the French in the face of soaring energy prices. And in particular electricity prices which are increasing and which should continue to rise in 2022. To limit the damage, Bruno Le Maire said on LCI, Monday, January 10, that a technical solution would be found “by end of the week ”, ie around January 15th. This was, moreover, a promise from the executive: at the end of last September, Jean Castex committed to limiting the increase in electricity prices to 4%, in order to preserve the household purchasing power.

The government has already lowered the tax on electricity consumption (CSPE), “to the lowest possible under European rules,” Bruno Le Maire said on LCI, but this only covers “up to 16 or 17% increase in the price of electricity ”. However, the government expects the increase to be in the order of 38 to 40%, hence the need for an additional solution to contain it.

A solution for the whole of 2022

“The negotiations have not yet been definitively concluded, the discussions are continuing. I think that by the end of the week, we will have the technical solution to protect both the French and businesses, ”he assured. For the moment, the reduction in taxation on electricity represents a cost of 8 billion euros for the state, according to the minister. “It will cost what we ultimately decide to do to keep the Prime Minister’s promise,” he added.

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Bruno Le Maire also assured that this promise was not valid only for the beginning of the year, but “for the whole of 2022”. “It is not a question of saying to the French ‘We will try to hold out until the presidential elections and afterwards, we will make a brutal increase” “, he declared. Soaring electricity prices are fueled by many factors, such as supply tensions this winter and rising CO allowances prices.₂ on carbon markets, on which companies trade “rights to pollute” allocated in limited numbers by the authorities.

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In the long term, France hopes for a reform of the European electricity market so that the prices reflect more faithfully the real prices in each country, whereas they are today set on the costs of gas and coal power plants, which are reaching new heights.

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