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You knew it couldn't be that good of a deal. Once again, off we go with privatizing profits and socializing costs.
The earlier "cash for trash" observation now looks more like "cherry picking" by EdF. Not at all unlike some of the bits and pieces buy ups of failed U.S. financial corporations by more solvent entities.
EDF Chief Lashes out at "Whingeing" Critics - The Observer - 28 Sep 08
"The [UK] government, which is selling its 35 per cent stake in British Energy, will foot the bill for £5.5bn of decommissioning liabilities from the company's existing reactors.
But it has emerged that British taxpayers will also remain on the hook for liabilities resulting from any breaches of its operating licence and over employment and redundancy costs for its 6,000 workers. EDF and its UK subsidiaries are ringfenced from these liabilities under the proposed takeover.
The Debate Goes Nuclear - Times (UK) - 28 Sep 08
"Tom Burke, who was a special adviser on environmental issues to the last Conservative government, says the industry is riddled with lousy economics that guarantee it will always need subsidies from the taxpayer. 'There are only two honest answers to the question of how much it costs to build a nuclear power station,' he said. 'These are 'I don’t know' and 'I’ll tell you when I’ve built it'.'
History suggests Burke could be right. Sizewell B, Britain’s last nuclear power station to enter service, saw costs rise from £1.7 billion to £3.7 billion. What is more, none of the three new designs under consideration for Britain has entered service anywhere in the world, so final costs are hard to calculate. Additionally, the whole industry is being hit by inflation rates well above 10% a year because of the demand for steel. That makes predicting real costs exceptionally difficult.
Fearful that industry may be unwilling to invest in the face of such unpredictable costs, the government has already caved in on its pledge to offer no subsidies to a revived nuclear industry by saying it will put a cap on the cost of nuclear waste disposal, making taxpayers liable for any excess. Sceptics predict this will be the first subsidy of many. "
And a bit of chauvinistic humor and other good tidbits from the ever reliable Independent.
John Lichfield: "The Engish Power Stations - Like its Girls - Are Ours" - Independent (UK) - 28 Sep 08
"After decades of being told that the dirigiste Gallic 'model' was doomed to failure, the French cockerel might be excused for crowing over the triumph of Electricité de France. In the week when George Bush became an old-fashioned interventionist, the privatised British energy industry was invaded by an all-conquering national champion, 84.8 per cent owned by the French state.
Actually, the EDF coup was greeted in France – especially on the Left – with hostility and anxiety.
The left-wing newspaper Libération recalled a raunchy French sex-and-sun B movie from the 1970s entitled A nous les petites anglaises (The English girls are all ours). The Libération headline on the EDF takeover was "A nous les vielles centrales anglaises" (The ageing English power stations are all ours).
Union leaders at EDF complained that their company had paid top euro for a struggling company with obsolete equipment. The deal, they said, could 'sink' EDF, or at least squeeze much-needed investment and, eventually, wages in France."
Nuclear Fusion - Financial Times - 28 Sep 08
The story shows how the nuclear power business is profoundly political, even in a country with one of the world's most liberal energy markets. As Professor Dieter Helm, an energy expert at New College Oxford, puts it: 'The idea that the private sector alone can decide to invest in nuclear power is a fiction; it always has been.'"
The earlier "cash for trash" observation now looks more like "cherry picking" by EdF. Not at all unlike some of the bits and pieces buy ups of failed U.S. financial corporations by more solvent entities.
EDF Chief Lashes out at "Whingeing" Critics - The Observer - 28 Sep 08
"The [UK] government, which is selling its 35 per cent stake in British Energy, will foot the bill for £5.5bn of decommissioning liabilities from the company's existing reactors.
But it has emerged that British taxpayers will also remain on the hook for liabilities resulting from any breaches of its operating licence and over employment and redundancy costs for its 6,000 workers. EDF and its UK subsidiaries are ringfenced from these liabilities under the proposed takeover.
The Debate Goes Nuclear - Times (UK) - 28 Sep 08
"Tom Burke, who was a special adviser on environmental issues to the last Conservative government, says the industry is riddled with lousy economics that guarantee it will always need subsidies from the taxpayer. 'There are only two honest answers to the question of how much it costs to build a nuclear power station,' he said. 'These are 'I don’t know' and 'I’ll tell you when I’ve built it'.'
History suggests Burke could be right. Sizewell B, Britain’s last nuclear power station to enter service, saw costs rise from £1.7 billion to £3.7 billion. What is more, none of the three new designs under consideration for Britain has entered service anywhere in the world, so final costs are hard to calculate. Additionally, the whole industry is being hit by inflation rates well above 10% a year because of the demand for steel. That makes predicting real costs exceptionally difficult.
Fearful that industry may be unwilling to invest in the face of such unpredictable costs, the government has already caved in on its pledge to offer no subsidies to a revived nuclear industry by saying it will put a cap on the cost of nuclear waste disposal, making taxpayers liable for any excess. Sceptics predict this will be the first subsidy of many. "
And a bit of chauvinistic humor and other good tidbits from the ever reliable Independent.
John Lichfield: "The Engish Power Stations - Like its Girls - Are Ours" - Independent (UK) - 28 Sep 08
"After decades of being told that the dirigiste Gallic 'model' was doomed to failure, the French cockerel might be excused for crowing over the triumph of Electricité de France. In the week when George Bush became an old-fashioned interventionist, the privatised British energy industry was invaded by an all-conquering national champion, 84.8 per cent owned by the French state.
Actually, the EDF coup was greeted in France – especially on the Left – with hostility and anxiety.
The left-wing newspaper Libération recalled a raunchy French sex-and-sun B movie from the 1970s entitled A nous les petites anglaises (The English girls are all ours). The Libération headline on the EDF takeover was "A nous les vielles centrales anglaises" (The ageing English power stations are all ours).
Union leaders at EDF complained that their company had paid top euro for a struggling company with obsolete equipment. The deal, they said, could 'sink' EDF, or at least squeeze much-needed investment and, eventually, wages in France."
Nuclear Fusion - Financial Times - 28 Sep 08
The story shows how the nuclear power business is profoundly political, even in a country with one of the world's most liberal energy markets. As Professor Dieter Helm, an energy expert at New College Oxford, puts it: 'The idea that the private sector alone can decide to invest in nuclear power is a fiction; it always has been.'"
