EDF Invades Britain

The London Review of Books has a fascinating piece by James Meek about the privatization of the British electrical power system. It seems that the big winner is EDF, the French electrical power giant, which now supplies a large share of Britain's electricity. Meek's piece is relentlessly, mercilessly critical. He despises neoliberalism and sees nothing but harm coming from loss of local control over power generation by a host of antiquated plants. Any efficiency gains that may have resulted from privatization are not ignored precisely, but disparaged as cheese-paring economies by a Leviathan multinational bent only on fattening its own profits. But the story that Meek tells is fascinating in its detail, despite his biases. He shows how the single market has created opportunities for investors and even brought benefits to British labor: the CGT, which is EDF's union, insisted on unionizing workers at British plants the company acquired and created a sort of European Works Council at one of them. No doubt there are unintended and perverse consequences to the phenomenon but as far as I can see nothing to justify the dark tones in which the picture is painted here. But the piece is worth reading nonetheless for a glimpse behind the scenes of a major industry.

Hollande Opposes Fracking

François Hollande has rejected 7 applications for fracking permits in France. I remain undecided about the wisdom of fracking, which has seriously transformed the U.S. energy equation. There is some evidence of environmental damage, but the claim that such damage is worse than that associated with other forms of energy supply has not been proven. At first glance, Hollande's rejection seems to be based not on a cost-benefit analysis but on implacable opposition to the technology.

Closing Nuclear Plants

François Hollande has promised to close the Fessenheim nuclear power plant, which has reached the end of its lifetime. He may close others, depending on whether or not he reneges on his agreement with the Greens (at the moment, he seems to have cooled on the plan). But what will closing plants cost? A nice article by Brad Plumer is illuminating on this point.

Rent Control, Nuclear Control

Cécile Duflot has announced a measure to limit permissible rent increases in case an apartment is rented to a new tenant. There is perhaps less than meets the eye in this measure, since the allowable increase is linked to an index of rents that is itself increasing. But the announcement is a useful crowd-pleaser in advance of the legislative elections and pending a promised new law on rents.

Meanwhile, there are rumors that Hollande might oust Henri Proglio from his post as head of the nuclear firm Areva. On the other hand, Hollande's promise to cut French dependence on nuclear-generated electricity from 75% to 50% by 2025 has now been downgraded, according to some advisors, to a mere "aspiration."

So it's interesting that Cécile Duflot, who comes to the Socialist government from the Greens, is the minister who is tasked with announcing the rent-control measure, which will please the left of the Left, while her own Greens, who didn't contribute much to the Hollande victory, are left to wonder what became of their dream of shutting down the French nuclear industry.

Lauvergeon's Revenge

Anne Lauvergeon, who was ousted from her post as head of the nuclear giant Areva by President Sarkozy, discusses his major errors in an astonishing interview (h/t Bernard Girard). This passage, in which Lauvergeon discusses the folly of Sarkozy's plan to sell a nuclear reactor to Libya, particularly caught my eye:

Qu'avez-vous dit au président lors de ce fameux rendez-vous?
D'abord, que je lui reconnaissais une vraie intuition sur le nucléaire... Mais qu'il avait commis cinq erreurs graves. La première, c'est d'avoir voulu fusionner Areva et Alstom pour le compte de Bouygues. Il ne l'a finalement pas fait, mais le suspense a duré un an et demi et a suffi à brouiller l'image de notre stratégie et à provoquer la sortie de Siemens, une catastrophe économique et un impair géopolitique... Deuxième erreur, avoir créé, avec la commission Roussely, une opération détestable pour l'image internationale de la filière nucléaire française. Pendant ce temps, notre augmentation de capital était à nouveau suspendue. Troisièmement, la nomination de Proglio. Quatrième erreur, il a laissé s'organiser un système de clan, de bandes et de prébendes. Ce système a fait la promotion d'un nucléaire bas de gamme à l'international et proposé de transférer nos droits de propriété intellectuelle mondiaux aux... Chinois, et de vendre du nucléaire à des pays où ce n'est pas raisonnable.
A qui précisément?
Par exemple au colonel Kadhafi. Nous jouions à fronts renversés: moi, qui aurais dû pousser à la vente, je m'y opposais vigoureusement, et l'Etat, censé être plus responsable, soutenait cette folie. Imaginez, si on l'avait fait, de quoi nous aurions l'air maintenant ! La vente de nucléaire s'accompagne de la création d'une autorité de sûreté capable d'arrêter la centrale en cas de problème. Or, dans un tel régime, un président de l'autorité de sûreté qui n'obéit pas est au mieux jeté en prison, au pire exécuté ! Pourtant, quelle insistance ! A l'été 2010, j'ai encore eu, à l'Elysée, une séance à ce sujet avec Claude Guéant et Henri Proglio...