Industrial Europe has challenged Environmental Europe over the price of reengineering energy use in deference to climate.
The International Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers (IFIEC) Europe on Feb. 27 published a manifesto calling for moderation of the European rush to displace fossil energy with renewable alternatives.
Electricity costs in Europe are two to three times higher than those in the US, according to the manifesto, signed by 137 chief executives of major manufacturing companies. Since 2000, European electricity costs for industry have increased by 70%.
"Regulatory costs (subsidies for renewables, taxes, grid costs, etc.) are the main reasons for this widening gap," the manifesto said.
Natural gas prices are three times higher among European Union members than in the US.
"The transition to a low-carbon economy must be driven in a cost and time-efficient way," the manifesto declared.
The document urged governments to "align the EU's industry, energy, and climate policies towards a new strategy with regulatory stability, consistency, and predictability for industrial investment, innovation, growth, and jobs in Europe." Its recommendations:
• Make EU industrial renaissance the most important objective to move Europe out of the crisis.
• Restore globally competitive energy costs for manufacturing industry, addressing all energy cost components.
• Focus climate policy reform on avoiding carbon leakage, allowing industry to grow, and obtaining a global agreement.
If enacted, these changes would reverse European policy, which has made the interests of Industrial Europe, as well as individual energy consumers, subservient to Environmental Europe's insistence on addressing climate change at any cost.
Apparently, Industrial Europe has had enough.
European manufacturing has shed 3.5 million jobs since 2008, according to the IFIEC. Noting that the industrial share of European gross domestic product has fallen to 15.1%, the manifesto seeks an increase in that metric to 20% by 2020.
EU leaders will discuss erosion of their region's manufacturing base at a summit Mar. 21-22 in Brussels. They've listened hard and long to Environmental Europe. Industrial Europe now wants its say. Will anyone listen?
Bob Tippee | Editor
Bob Tippee has been chief editor of Oil & Gas Journal since January 1999 and a member of the Journal staff since October 1977. Before joining the magazine, he worked as a reporter at the Tulsa World and served for four years as an officer in the US Air Force. A native of St. Louis, he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Tulsa.
