Three-step plan by Confesercenti to stem expensive energy

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A package of interventions to stem expensive energy starting from the price ceiling to restore full market efficiency, tackle the issue of excise duties and help companies to take the path of more conscious energy consumption. This is the package of measures requested by Confesercenti during the conference “National energy security: strategies for Italy”. «The first aspect to attack is the functioning of the European gas market – warns Vittorio Messina, national vice president of Confesercenti -. Istat data measure for Italy an increase in the import price of gas of 150%, but the change in the price traded on the Ttf market (the wholesale market in Holland ndr) is much higher, having exceeded 500%. This in the presence of an effective volume of trade that in the first four months of 2022 contracted 10 times compared to the same period of 2021. A market whose extreme volatility pushes up the price of bills “. At the same time Messina asks that the reduction of excise duties and the measures to support families must be confirmed with the persistence of current conditions. “It is appropriate to bring to the discussion a hypothesis of mobile excise duty on fuels, which varies on the basis of automatic mechanisms in the event of excessive variability of prices at the origin,” says Messina. The idea of ​​energy communities is put forward, which make possible a more conscious consumption and a containment of prices. The recognition of these initiatives by the Government could prove to be of the utmost importance as part of a coordinated strategy to reduce energy consumption. As regards the diversification chapter, Alon Simhayoff Deputy Ambassador of Israel recalls that «We can become not only a supplier for Italy, but also an energy partner with which to invest in research and development. We are reflecting on various hypotheses for getting our gas to Europe and Italy. Our two countries are already collaborating on renewables, we could also start collaborating on natural gas ». In the field of differentiation of sources, there are those who invite a rethinking. It is Umberto Minopoli, president of the Italian Nuclear Association who remembers: «It is necessary to understand, 35 years after the referendum, how and whether to reopen the nuclear question in Italy. Diversifying sources is essential: the energy mix guarantees security and stability for countries. Nuclear power is not the energy of the past, as many think, but it is the energy of the future, above all because we are increasingly moving towards the centrality of electricity among energy sources and nuclear guarantees continuity in supplies. It is necessary to carry out serious studies on the subject and seriously evaluate the cost of not choosing a return to nuclear power. A No, that of 35 years ago that made us dependent in energy terms from unsafe countries ».