Starving to death in a boulangerie: France’s selfish energy policy

This was the week the French economy returned to recession, almost taking the rest of the Euro-Zone with it:

While Germany was able to barely sidestep a recession in the first quarter, France slid into one, according to the data on Wednesday from Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical agency. The French president, François Hollande, observed the occasion at a news conference in Brussels by indicating that his country should not be singled out for criticism.

I’ve written a lot in the past on France, and regular readers know that as a Francophone progressive, I have a very positive view on France compared to most Anglo-Saxons, but the time has come to single France out.

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Poland, All about Delivery?

There's not been much news from Poland lately and people are mistaking silence with bad news. As this guest post from James Elston shows, there's been a lot of positive activity:

As I suggested in my October 2012 article on this forum, 2013 is the make or break year for the Eastern Poland Shale Plays whilst activity is growing in the Permian Basin Carboniferous plays to the southwest. Sentiment towards nascent Polish shale gas exploration has worsened with Exxon partially withdrawing and Marathon and Talisman pulling out, all more for portfolio reasons than anything else.

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Europe's Forced Reappraisal Of Shale Gas

Another guest post, this time from Andrew McKillop . He has  green energy and sustainable development experience dating back to the '70s and has long experience at DG Energy at the European Commission. His words, originally published at Market Oracle, prvides a reality check for  left and right together:

EYES SET WEST European policymakers at Commission level, in European Council of ministers meetings, and in national governments now curtly say that the shale gas issue is "very political", because the subject will not go away. Allowing shale gas extraction by hydraulic fracturing to move ahead is already politically correct - in some countries such as Poland - and may soon also become correct in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The logjam is breaking.

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UK shale could lower world prices.

A key part of the animosity from opponents of shale is manifested in arguments over whether UK shale gas would, or would not, have any impact on gas and electricity bills.  A key part of the issue has been the steadfast refusal of the Big Six supply companies, abetted by the regulator Ofgem, to make components of bills transparent. I wrote on this last year in a post called  What’s wrong with UK Energy Prices and How to Fix Them.  

The opposition has two main components.The first, or why bother tendency, argues the Big Six, Ofgem, the government and oil and gas companies are all crooks and why trust anyone so let's not even bother looking for shale. The second is more rational, but only half right: their correct point is that UK shale gas will be priced at international market forces, so therefore UK gas and electricity prices will rise. Where they are wrong is an unwillingness to cast off price formation theories based on the outdated concepts of the pre-shale/Peak Oil era.

This school at least understands that natural gas is world commodity, even if we are forbidden by UK regulators to know what the actual cost components are.  It’s only right and proper that UK citizens should have confidence on regulatory expertise, but just as in retail market transparency, Ofgem’s view are to be found wanting. The infamous Project Discovery of 2009 dates from an era when shale gas was barely known outside of North America, yet is still used today as a template for prices for the next ten years. The failure to understand current world market forces leads to a concomitant failure to understand that world -and UK  wholesale prices aren't rising anyway.

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