Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre reacted harshly to the Conservative Party when he received criticism over electricity at the Storting on Wednesday and accused Erna Solberg’s party of sleeping in class.
– Under what stone has the Conservative Party been for 8 years, asked Støre rhetorically, after receiving criticism from the Conservative Party’s energy politician Nikolai Astrup.
Astrup believed the government had delayed the development of offshore wind and other new energy for Norway’s electricity grid.
During the Storting’s impromptu question time on Wednesday morning, Astrup said the government must now hand over all the stones to achieve full development of two offshore wind farms: Utsira and Sørlige Nordsjø 2.
Hit
But Støre fought back and accused the Conservative Party in government from 2013 to 2019 of blocking any onshore wind development and failing to anticipate conditions for offshore wind development:
– I agree that the solution is that we need to have more power. But what rock was the Conservative Party under for 8 years? They didn’t see this challenge coming. The whole community has been talking about electrification, but when we got to the government offices, very little has happened: all onshore wind has completely stopped, slow progress on Enøk and offshore wind has only been two years and half a man in the ministry. So it’s this government that started out with a promise to get more power, Støre said.
Disagreement
Støre has promised that his government will examine all crossroads to find solutions that allow new power to develop as quickly as possible.
– A new government was needed to get out of the sleepy underground existence in which the Conservative Party found itself for 8 years, said Støre.
But Astrup – not surprisingly – does not agree with Støre’s description of the story. Astrup stressed that a lot of power had been developed under the previous government and stressed that the Støre government plans to develop less offshore wind in the southern North Sea in the first phase than the Solberg government planned.
Stone by weight
Sofie Marhaug (Red) also wanted to talk about rock and electricity in the hour of spontaneous questions:
– The government says it will turn over all the stones. But it is of little use to put all the stones back in place. It’s adding a stone to the burden for most people, Marhaug said.
