Renewable Norway, Counterwind Norway | On a level with people and nature, Haga?

Åslaug Haga starts her post by implying that she and Fornybar Norge are working for an energy transition on a level with people and nature. Then she allied herself with the wrong partners, because neither people nor nature are on the agenda of those who finance her organisation.

The members of Fornybar Norge mainly works with energy production, power grids and the sale of energy, and among them we find players such as Statnett and Statkraft. None of these have either people or nature as the measure of their success; their success criterion is financial results.

That’s about it nothing wrong with that, but it is important to keep it in mind when interpreting the message from Renewable Norway. Members pay in a lot. Renewable Norway has an annual income of almost NOK 100 million. They use this money to influence the state and government, as well as you and me. In addition, their government contacts (read: lobbyists) have free access to our politicians. It is an organization with very great economic and political power.

The paying members for this, of course expect to get something back for the money they spend, and I don’t think they will be too happy if they get nature, an upgrade of hydropower or an increase in the membership fee. That is probably why it is so difficult for us at Motvind Norge to come through with these solutions.

There is not much money to be made from this. Additional insulation, heat pumps and solar cells on homes do not give members increased income. On the contrary. On the other hand, it will provide local value creation for carpenters, heat pump fitters and electricians and make us less dependent on the members’ services and products. So, not something I would think Haga’s members want to pay for.

If it had had it been true that Renewable Norway wanted an energy transition on a level with people and nature, they would have come to us at Motvind Norge, because that is what we work for. Then they had tried out all possible methods to increase production and save energy – before they proposed to destroy nature, and they would have used their lobbyists to ensure good support schemes for monoculture, solar cells and geothermal heating.

Furthermore, they wanted to have warned our government against energy-intensive industries that did not provide jobs, such as data storage, crypto factories and hydrogen/ammonia production. Then they had played on teams with people and nature.

Now it is unfortunately neither we nor nature pay them, and therefore they do not work for us either. They work for big companies with a lot of money who want to become bigger companies with more money. So in that picture we fall short. Motvind Norge probably has many more members than Renewable Norway, but fortunately our membership is much lower. Nor do our members have an expectation that their dues will give them any financial benefits.

What our members want is whole nature, public health and, at best, a predictable electricity bill. “The answer my friend is blowing in the wind” is a beautiful line, but it should not be the answer to how big the next electricity bill will be.

It should be It is now clear that Renewable Norway does not work for people and nature, but for big capital. All right, that, but they should stop pretending they’re on the team with anything other than the money. Large international investors have a consistent need. Political stability. Without it, the risk of investing is very high.

That is one of the reasons to certain other energy solutions not being investigated to a greater extent now. There are very few who will invest in a facility where a political shift could stop the entire project. This is also why wind power and hydrogen etc. are so popular now. Because a green tailwind is blowing across Europe. The so-called green shift, which has moved away from being political goodwill towards renewable energy and has become today’s mass psychosis, also called “more of everything – faster”.

It is this Renewable Norway has seen the opportunity to make money from it. This is their business idea. By helping to maintain and strengthen the goodwill that the renewables industry and investors need to increase their profits, they can, for a “small” membership fee, make it possible for the power industry’s many players to earn even more from the “green shift”.

And to succeed in that, they must at the same time support the idea of ​​eternal consumption growth. A growth that is a far greater threat to the climate than the absence of wind turbines in our nature. So when it comes down to it, Fornybar Norge does not work for either the climate, people or nature. They work for the financial and power industries. People and nature are obstacles for them and the climate issue a welcome substitute motive.

Fortunately, there is an organization that actually works for an energy transition on the level of people and nature. It is called Motvind Norge.