The Oil Drum

Pétrole: François Fillon prône de "changer progressivement de sources d'énergie"		Oil: François Fillon says we have to move to other energy sources
"S'agissant de l'essence, il faut bien se mettre dans la tête qu'il n'y a pas de solution à cette question autre que de changer progressivement de sources d'énergie parce qu'on est devant une pénurie avancée", a souligné le Premier ministre sur RTL. (...) "Si on dit aux Français 'ne vous inquiétez pas on va trouver des moyens artificiels pour baisser le prix de l'essence et vous pouvez continuer à consommer de l'essence comme avant', on se trompe", a mis en garde le chef du gouvernement. "Il faut mettre tout l'argent disponible sur la recherche d'énergies alternatives". AP		"Speaking of gas, we have to get in our minds that there is no other solution to this question than to move to other energy sources because we are facing a forewarned shortage" (...) "If we tell the French: 'don't worry, we'll find artificial ways to lower the price of gas and you can continue to use gasoline as before', it's a lie", warned the head of government. "We have to put all available money on alternative energy R&D"

Will his government actually listen to what he is saying?

The weather is still pleasantly warm, and winter seems, as yet, to be just an unpleasant thought that can be put off until, at least, Thanksgiving. But unfortunately for those who have to look towards energy supplies for the winter, particularly in Europe, it may already be coming too quickly. To simply describe what is likely going to turn into yet another mess this winter, let me try a quick summary of what seems to be in the offing.

Gazprom you may recall has been buying into, or acquiring more control of, pipelines that carry their gas from Russia to the West. In the process, last year, it had a bit of a row with Ukraine, over the price that should be paid for the gas Ukraine was using. By offsetting the cheaper price that was to be paid for gas from Turkmenistan, the deal that was cut gave Ukraine the promise of gas at a price that would allow it to continue to function. Well, unfortunately for that agreement, Gazprom has just agreed to pay more for Turkmen gas. At a price of $100 per thousand cubic meters this is already $5 above the price that Ukraine was going to pay for a blend that also contained $230 Gazprom gas.

I was dismayed to hear the story "SUV Buyers Defy High Price of Gas in France" on NPR this morning. This piece discusses how SUVs are becoming ever more popular in France, to the extent that Renault and Peugeot are going to be coming out with new SUVs in 2006 and 2007, respectively. (On the other hand, the mayor of Paris is considering banning SUV traffic in the city center during rush hour, and there's a rogue group of anti-SUV activists who let the air out of the tires of the SUVs they come across.)

Personally, I liked having at my disposal Roscoe Bartlett's famous comment about how we'd be hardpressed to argue that Europeans are worse off than we are because they have higher gas prices and drive smaller cars: "I see as many smiles on their faces as I see on Americans' faces." I hope this is a trend that isn't going to catch on.