> > >> > Instead of complaining now or watching what the market does, by not really > watching it รก la Roger, better include the future when considering past and > present: I bet that Spain, with its sunshine monopoly and mix of renewable > energy and infrastructure investment of the last years, will be able to > fend off worst effects of economic woes in Europe when compared to Greece > etc. > > Spain will be better positioned in the next years even though it now looks > worrying. > > > My home country is neighbouring Portugal, and we made a huge investment on renewable energy sources in the last decade - solar and wind. It was (and still is) highly subsidised by the state. I still have an appartement there and pay the monthly energy bill. I pay a similar amount to my friends and family who actually live there and use energy, because the energy bill is now about 75% taxes. I recently received an email warning me that I'll have to pay even more this year. Energy-dependent industry is collapsing all over the country because their business in no longer viable. One of the main industrial plants (metallurgic) near my home town closed its doors last year. This tax now extends to gas. Stealing gas from cars is now becoming a common crime (almost unheard of a couple years ago).
Meanwhile Paris runs on nuclear energy. My energy bill here is about half of my Portuguese energy bill - the latter for zero kW. I spent Christmas night at my in-laws and they turned up the heating as a special treat. Keeping it on the entire month would cost them about 900 euros. This is the view from the ground. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en.
