European businesses quake in their boots, fearing word from a worthless EU parasite about higher 'energy' prices needed for an unnamed reason

Europeans are committing slow suicide, afraid of their own shadows, afraid of what some worthless parasite from an imaginary construct called the EU is going to say to them about the imaginary crisis of "energy efficiency," how much it will cost, and that they might have to go out of business.

6/7/12, "Europe's factories braced for power price squeeze," Euractiv

"EU member states are expected to close a deal on the bloc's proposed energy efficiency directive by the end of June amid worries over the consequences it could have over the price of electricity in Europe's factories.

Read here an interview on how energy prices affect the energy-intensive industry of non-ferous metal manufacturers in Germany.

Factory owners are unnerved by EU's the upcoming energy efficiency directive, which is set to be agreed at the end of the month.

One of the biggest changes that the bill could bring is an obligation on power utilities to save 1.5% on their customers' energy bills annually – including large energy consumers like chemical plants and metal factories.

Factories are the single largest users of electricity in Europe, according to the Buildings Performance Institute Europe, and they fear the savings obligation on power utilities will be passed on to them, squeezing already tight profit margins even further.

Higher Energy Bills

Higher up the supply chain, power utilities argue they should be able to pass on the extra costs to their industrial customers.

“Governments have to deliver energy savings, but want low energy prices,” said Nicola Rega of Eurelectric, the electricity industry association in Europe. “The concern is that energy companies will end up paying for everything ,” he added, saying that there is no guarantee power utilities will be able to recuperate the cost through consumer bills.

If this was to happen, factories which use a lot of energy in their manufacturing processes will have to suffer the consequences of the price spikes.

In Germany, electricity prices are forecast to double by 2020 as a result of the governments' nuclear phase out and subsidies for renewable energy.

But while energy-intensive industries have so far been able to withstand those, they may now be reaching a breaking point.

In May, metal manufacturer Voerdal, the third largest aluminum smelter in Germany, filed for insolvency, immediately prompting warnings from industry representatives. “The production of metals is jeopardised by high energy prices that are no longer competitive at international level,” said Ulrich Grillo, chairman of the metal manufactures group WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle (WVM).

Factories that count among Europe's biggest polluters have asked exemption from the EU’s emissions trading scheme for carbon dioxide, which they described as an “energy capping” and “de-industrialisation” law.

In May, big energy users, including steel and aluminum producers, received the EU's green light to obtain compensation from national governments for the extra costs resulting from the ETS. Such state aid is supposed to help factories switch to more energy-efficient modes of production.

Chemical giant BASF agrees and favours what it describes as 'a bottom-up' approach where energy-efficiency improvements at factory level are constantly monitored by external auditors.

In fact, those industries have already started doing their part in improving energy efficiency.

"We already have high energy prices and we are in a global competition," said Wolfgang Weber, Vice President for EU Government Relations at BASF. "We already think about what is the most efficient way to build a product and where – geographically and geologically," he told EurActiv.

To keep Europe's factories going, Weber proposed scrapping caps on energy demand altogether in exchange for increasing investment in energy efficiency. "We need a clear signal that industrial energy demand should not need to be capped," Weber said....

If the energy efficiency directive was passed without changes, big industries would inevitably end up paying more, he (Rega) said. "In the power utilities' energy savings obligation scheme, they will have to pay higher energy prices - and thus pay for the implementation of the schemes -, but they will not necessarily benefit from energy efficiency services," Rega said.

Rolf Kuby, chief of the Brussels bureau of WVM - WirtschaftsVereinigung Metalle federation,representing the economic concerns of the non-ferrous metal industry in Germany told EurActiv in an interview that energy savings for energy-intensive industries are already incentivised by the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and should therefore not be imposed by the Energy Efficiency Directive.

The extent to which the energy-intensive industries will be affected depends on how member states are implementing the proposed energy-saving scheme at national level, according to Bogdan Atanasiu, from the Performance Institute Europe (BPIE).

In Germany, for example, factories are exempted from the cost of renewables (the so-called feed-in-tariffs of the German government) that is usually transmitted to end-users....

Maureen Lally, of energy service provider Trane, believes companies usually see the benefits for themselves.

Taking Gillette's factory in Poland as an example of voluntary revamping, she said: “They didn't have a government telling them what to do, they did it on their own.”

Thomas Bauwens from industry association PlasticsEurope, agrees. "At times of crisis, energy efficiency at production sites is already a prerequisite to reduce costs and is even increasingly becoming a marketing argument," he says. "Most businesses are already engaged in reducing energy consumption and such moves are likely to become more attractive in the future."

Supermarket chains are also taking their own steps in improving their energy efficiency. “Their customers won't spend money in their stores if they think they are wasting energy and not servicing their community,” Lally said. If they want to be considered a leader in their field and set an example, they can even go carbon-neutral, like Microsoft has recently announced.

But the challenge might be bigger in the aluminum and the chemical sector, which consume more energy.

For power utilities, the new EU rules could radically change their business model, currently focused on selling energy, to selling efficiency services - a change which, they claim, will reflect in end users' electricity bills.

Bogdan Atanasiu, of BPIE, says all market forces have to move together at once, so that energy companies get a guarantee they will be able to change from selling energy to selling mostly energy efficiency services.

"You cannot impose this change onto energy retailers. This problem is complex and the only solution is to stimulate the energy services market," Atanasiu said."

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"Organized crime may be responsible for theft of European Union emission allowances this month, and national authorities are working with Europol...a top EU climate official said." Sweden admits it has Austria's stolen 'carbon credits' but says it might just be 'a coincidence.'

2/1/2011, "Austria Asks Sweden to Return Carbon Permits Worth $3.9 Million," Bloomberg, by Johan Carlstrom and Mathew Carr

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1/2/2011, "Criminal carbon trading schemes escalate," Canada Free Press, Jack Dini

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2/1/11, ""Broken" EU spot CO2 market will struggle to revive," Forexpros, Reuters

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11/23/11, "Europe's $287 billion carbon 'waste': UBS report," The Australian, by Sid Maher

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Ed. note: I didn't see global warming, man-caused climate change, CO2, or carbon offset trading mentioned in this article. It's no longer necessary since Europeans are fine with being killed off by the trillion dollar, organized crime infested 'climate' industry. Why not just drink hemlock? Then the rest of us wouldn't have to watch you march to the death camps.

via Free Republic