Stavanger mayor Kari Nessa Nordtun (Ap) wants to equalize electricity prices in the country – she can look far for support from party colleagues in the north.
Less than 20 minutes ago
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– If it is the electricity price they are after, then they can move here, says Alta mayor Monica Nielsen (Ap) to VG.
The request goes to people in southern Norway who are experiencing record high electricity prices – and party member Kari Nessa Nordtun, who said on Thursday that the large price differences “perceived as deeply unfair”.
When asked what should be done to get more equal prices throughout the country, the mayor of Stavanger and the head of APS’s energy committee replied:
– The alternative is to build out transmission capacity between the price areas and not least to build out more renewables within wind, solar and existing hydropower.
She does not get the Alta mayor to agree to that, or the other Labor Party leaders in the region.
– I think it is a very provocative play. She takes on the whole of Northern Norway, so to speak. It is completely out of the question to support it, says Nielsen.
–– Must be resolved in the south
The transmission capacity in the power grid is one of the main reasons for the large price differences. Many in Northern Norway fear that they will also receive high electricity prices if the capacity is expanded.
The Alta mayor believes that the solution to the electricity crisis is not that people in Northern Norway also get expensive electricity, and points to everything that is currently expensive about living in the region.
– There are many things that are more expensive with us today. Online rent is more expensive and we have to have the heating cables for 10 to 11 months a year, we have a much larger consumption, says Nielsen and adds:
– The power crisis must be resolved in the south.
Nor does Troms and Finnmark’s new county council leader Kristina Torbergsen (Ap) have much to spare for the Stavanger mayor’s emissions.
– My party colleague in Stavanger will be allowed to have the opinions she wants, but my clear feedback is that it is not the time to send the power south, says Torbergsen to VG on the same day that she was appointed to the post.
– The power will be used in the north
Like the Alta mayor, she points out that it is much more expensive to live in the north than in the south, and points out petrol, food and plane tickets.
– When you add up the bill, we don’t come out much better off. Besides, there are long winters and cold summers, now it’s 10 degrees and pissing rain here, says Torbergsen on the phone from Tromsø.
– The power in the north must be used to further develop the north, says Torbergsen.
“The geographical and climatic conditions in
Northern Norway can occasionally present challenges with security of supply,” it says the Nordic area report from 2020.
–The mayor of Alta, which is a municipality with a hydroelectric plant, says that they hardly have enough power to cover their own needs, as the situation is today.
– It is very short-term thinking that we should use the little power we have in the north to help those in the south. Today we have a bit of a surplus, but we will soon be in short supply here too, she says and adds:
– We do not have enough electricity for those who want to establish themselves here. It is completely beyond.
– Will go unnoticed
Mayor Gunnar Wilhelmsen (Ap) in Tromsø also points to the region’s future power needs when VG asks what he thinks of Stavanger mayor Kari Nessa Nordtun’s plans.
– I disagree with Kari and would go so far as to wonder if she has been misquoted, says Wilhelmsen.
–– That we do not have capacity between north and south is a deliberate policy. Now we have an advantage that comes from that. I am worried about electricity prices in the south, but the north is not the solution, he says.
– How will the discussion about this be in the Labor Party?
– It will go unnoticed. If we are to investigate expanding the capacity, it will take 10 years. The main challenge in the north is to have enough power, says Wilhelmsen.
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