Water charges are back in the news because the independent Expert Commission established to ‘assess and make recommendation upon the funding of domestic public water services in Ireland and improvements in water quality’ is due to submit its report to the Oireachtas next week. Contrary to its position in September, Fianna Fáil were reported in the Irish Times early this week as saying that they ‘cannot rule out supporting the return of water charges if an independent expert commission proposes such a move’. The Government has put a motion to the House today to establish a special Oireachtas committee tasked with examining how water services are to be funded, based on the report. At time of writing, a stormy debate is taking place in the Dáil, with opposition unhappy that the government have already determined the Chair. If approved, the Committee will have 20 members, including five Government TDs, four Fianna Fáil TDs, two Sinn Féin TDs, five TDs from smaller groupings and four Senators and will report back to the Dáil and Seanad within 3 months, leading to vote in March. The details and politics of the process are well covered in this piece in Wednesday’s Irish Times.
Based on information in a leak to the press last weekend it would appear, according to RTE, that the Expert Commission are set to recommend a per- volume usage charge, with ‘a free water allowance for all households and a significant one for families’ resulting in a final charge which would, ‘in the words of one source, be "modest"’.
The forcefully negative response from opposition parties is indicative of the utter breakdown of public trust on this divisive issue. Despite the high calibre and international experience and expertise of the members of the Expert Commission, it is regrettable that for those opposed to water charges, it doesn’t matter what they recommend, its work has been tainted by the manner of its establishment by the government and by the complete lack of meaningful engagement with the public on the water charges from the moment they were included in the Memorandum of Understanding with the Troika agreed almost 6 years ago tothe day on November 28th 2010.
Google's Jigsaw: Undermining Alternative Media
In this episode of Geopolitical Report Kurt Nimmo, examines Google’s Jigsaw, an emerging technology that will be used on the internet to counter speech and ideas considered “extremist” by the global elite. Initially beta tested on radical Islamists, Google and its partners plan to leverage the technology to marginalize and ultimately eliminate opposition to the establishment.
by Kurt Nimmo
Source: Newsbud
Energy back in local hands
Photo credits: Riccardo Annandale
Some examples in Europe show that cities running their own energy company can lower the energy bill for citizens
Across Europe, town and city councils are becoming increasingly interested in energy decentralisation, i.e. in producing power closer to where it is consumed.
Those municipalities that have already experienced this say the model is one of the best ways of fighting pollution and reducing energy costs for citizens. Heidelberg is one such city in Germany, with its long-running energy company.
The city-owned company is responsible for managing gas, heating, and the water and sewage systems. “The most important issue was that we started our action plan with all the population behind us”, states mayor Eckart Würzner. “We have a general strategy to be a city free of fossil fuels by 2050. This is extremely challenging since we are a growing city and therefore we have to switch to renewables in very little time,” he points out.
The Municipalityhas developed a new urban area, Bahnstadt, that is 100 % CO2 free. “The buildings are very energy efficient and the resources used to serve this area are 100 % renewable. We have noticed that the energy demand of the flats’ owners has fallen dramatically,” adds the mayor of Heidelberg. All the buildings in Bahnstadt are constructed to ‘passive house’ standards. This construction concept allows the inhabitants to cut their energy consumption for heating by 80% compared to normal houses.
Energy is generally inexpensive in Sweden since there is a long tradition of cities supplying citizens with affordable home-grown power. In addition, prices are kept low by the large choice of energy companies – around 300 – on the market today.
Växjö is no exception and governs its energy policy and resources independently. “We own our biomass plant, where we produce electricity, heating and cooling, and for 20 years we have been using only bio-energy. Actually the entire city is heated with bio-energy”, says mayor Bo Frank.
He adds that the city also owns facilities for biogas production. “Each citizen is more or less required to put all organic waste in a separate container. We use that organic waste to produce biogas for all public transport”, explains Frank. The city promotes public transport to limit the number of cars in the city centre. “We encourage people and companies to buy electric cars. All cars owned by the Municipality are environmentally-friendly”, states Frank.
In France, the city of Grenoble has been able to gain the trust of its citizens thanks to its 100 year-old energy company. Private businesses sell electricity to under 20% of the population.
“Private stakeholders are only interested in the financial aspect, whereas local energy suppliers also take into account the social, environmental and spatial dimensions of cities”, says deputy mayor Vincent Fristot. He adds that the Municipality can offer specific support to people who are unable to pay their electricity bills. It involves allowing citizens to pay in instalments or to fit home devices with low-power consumption.
Besides the social benefits granted to citizens, the local energy supplier in Grenoble has invested in renewable facilities, such as wind turbines and photovoltaic panels. “It was very important for us to be able to supply green energy at the best possible price, which can compete with private energy companies”, emphasises Fristot.
Cat Hobbs, director of We Own It, a British campaigning organisation, located in Oxford, agree on this approach: “It is difficult to have control over energy policy when the company is private. They do what they like; therefore, for those who want to produce renewable energy, it would be much easier to set up new companies, with public ownership”.
More and more communities in Europe are pondering a return to public management of power and of other important assets such as water. The new trend is known as remunicipalisation.
In other words, energy back in local hands.
Source: Fliuch.org