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this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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Sadly our politicians are slowly privatizing public services and making public services worse.
Police and medical services are getting reduced on a yearly basis.
We are selling our independence to the EU by letting other markets control the price of our electricity. Starting new industries relying on cheap electricity was a unique feature for us. We are making aluminium in small towns far away from large cities. Starting new plant will not be possible in the future.
Corruption and nepotism between politicians and industries are being exposed more often than before.
It's nice living in Norway. But our politicians and capitalists have decided that this should come to an end. Norway's peak has been reached.
The race to the bottom has begun years ago.
You could also say that they are instead together with the rest of Europe. United. There's no reason Norway would have super cheap power and Germany should struggle even more without Russian gas.
I disagree.
Germany dismantled their electric infrastructure by shutting down their nuclear plants. Only because boomers were afraid of hot metal in a pool. They replaced the green energy with coal and gas.
Most of Europe use gas for heating and cooking. In Norway we use electricity for those purposes. It's also very cold in most parts during the winter. So cheap electricity is a vital part of our infrastructure.
Transporting electricity from Norway to Germany and GB is not efficient as there is a loss of power on the grid to heat during transport.
France is a great opposite to Germany in this discussion. They are invested in their nuclear energy and has an export industry. France was the biggest exporter of electricity in Europe before Capitalists sold out the Norwegian people for some fat paychecks.
It was a well-planned phase-out that de facto started in the 90s, when no new plans were getting built, and got formalised (and properly planned) early 2000s. It was flanked by expansion of renewables, in fact Germany doing that is what gave renewables the initial investment necessary to make them competitive.
Then a conservative government came along and fucked up the transition, decided to exit from the nuclear exit and then to exit from the exit from the exit after Fukushima, but that's another story. They also destroyed the German solar industry, the Chinese then bought the tech for cheap and are now owning the world market.
Anti-nuclear is not a generational stance in Germany.
Nope. We still have coal plants to be able to export to France so they can claim they are CO2-neutral. Gas is an interim technology, they're going to run on synthesised gas in the future, the pipeline network can store up to three months of total energy consumption (not just electricity) it's ideal long-term and backup storage.
HVDC is very efficient also your hydrostorage makes excellent batteries. Generally speaking why are you so worried about efficiency, would you rather have wind mills shutting down when they overproduce?
Germany didn't "dismantle" their infrastructure, its mistake was to rely on cheap russian gas and shutting down their PV industry while they were ahead of China.
The unanticipated war increased the prices and while it would have been great to still have the nuclear plants, they were really old already anyways.
Nuclear energy is way too expensive, because it can only exist while being heavily subsidized. On top of that they are a big risk in combination with climate change. You mentioned France, but forgot the fact that they had to shut down their reactors due to drought in 2022 and had to import electricity for the first time in decades. Not really a technology that I would count on for the future, especially considering the long time it takes to build them.
As you can see, shit happens and the idea in Europe is to stick together. I'm glad to be part of this. You sound like you're angry and want to vote for politicians that don't "sell you out to Europe", I can imagine which kind of party that might be, good luck with that.
Way to go attacking me at the end there.
The electrical grid needs a balanced energy. When everyone now goes apeshit on wind because of the subsidies we basically fuck ourselves over big time. When it stops blowing in Germany it doesn't blow in Norway. Most of the wind is generated by high pressure on the Atlantic and low pressure over Europe. The most common wind direction is from the ocean.
Huge oil companies goes all in on wind. Can you guess why? When it doesn't blow we have to burn gas.
As of not selling us out to Europe. Guess which country has the most healthy fishing industry? You're god damn right. We don't want EU's short sighted policies bankrupt us. EU countries are queuing up to fish us dry as they fished their own waters dry.
Labeling me as some kind of extremist because I want to conserve the climate and environment is pretty rad.
You're making some strong claims, while using an even stronger language:
The "race to the button" has begun because of corrupt politicians and "Capitalists", who sold out the Norwegian people for some "fat paychecks".
Germany "dismantled" their electric infrastructure, because of "boomers", that are afraid of "hot metal in a pool", generally everyone who is against nuclear is "just afraid of what they don't understand".
Oil companies invest in wind energy, to keep people relying on oil in the future.
The EU wants to fish Norway dry.
I already said my part about nuclear energy.
That wind energy is an oil company conspiracy to keep people hooked on oil and not a diversification of their portfolio, similar to what Saudi Arabia is doing, I'm not going into much either.
Norway, the EU and GB came to an agreement, that also benefits Norway, some quotes:
This traditional deal between the two parties has been particularly demanding this year, as the quotas traditionally fished by Norwegian vessels are now located in the British zone, outside the territory of the European Union.
Norwegian fishermen can now fish the opportunities Norway has acquired from Greenland, including shrimp, Greenland halibut, and redfish, and in the EU zone, such as roundnose grenadier.
"It is gratifying that we have reached an agreement with the EU and the UK. This means that we have agreed on quotas for important stocks that we manage together in the North Sea. This is crucial for sustainable management," concluded Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Cecilie Myrseth.
Maybe if you dial your tone down a bit and add some sources to your claims, you could be taken more serious.
You can live in this fantasy where Norway is without faults and a perfect Paradise as much as you want
I don't care.
Anything happening in the UK and the US is happening in Norway. Just a little bit later. NPM is an unstoppable force at the moment.
People are getting shafted by inflation right now, wages are stagnant and the rich are exporting their wealth to Swiss for tax evasion. Birth rates are down and gang violence is in the rise. The Police force are getting it's back broken with reforms.
Housing is soon unavailable for the upcoming generation without well funded parents.
This Christmas the organizations providing gifts and food for the poor had record numbers of people queuing up.
But hey. Look at this nice street in Stavanger.
Living in Norway is nice. But the welfare state and stable foundation for a trustworthy political system is under huge stress. People should't form their opinion of a country based of social media posts.
You can browse the Norwegian subreddit if you want to know what's moving behind the facade. Norway has good freedom of the press, so follow Norwegian news outlet as well. Even the state media covers scandals.
Dismantling the nuclear plants was the correct decision. Why produce radioactive trash you cannot safely store? The mistake was selling out solar tech. Funny you use france as a positive example because their power plants are in terrible conditions.
We have been safely storing nuclear "trash" for decades. Much of it isn't really considered trash as it will have potential for new energy in the future. Temporary storage is more correct.
France are planning to build six new plants.
Nuclear energy has potential for catastrophes sure. But annual deaths by nuclear disasters Vs. Any other energy sources is pretty funny.
Wind power is considered more lethal than nuclear.
People are just afraid of what they don't understand.
Another point for nuclear, it actually works when it's not sunny and windy. Hot still days in the summer when everyone wants AC? No wind power. Terrible winter days that are super windy with no sun? Still no wind power because the wind is now too strong and will hurt the turbines, and no sun. Where's the heat coming from? Renewable sources are great, but the amount of storage they would need to be practical as a primary source of electricity is a bit prohibitive.
Fully agree. The Norway I moved to was very egalitarian and people were much more socially minded. But lately things have been getting worse the gap between rich and poor is absurd and the government is putting in a lot of not so subtle poor taxes.