France, this country which dreams of being big, powerful and independent, but always wakes up smaller, fragile and dependent. On reading the report of the commission of inquiry into the reasons for the loss of sovereignty and energy independence of France, made public Thursday, April 6 at the National Assembly, there is not much left of the national mythology. on energy policy over the past thirty years.
The 372 pages, tight and dense, the result of six months of hearings, tell the long story of an impressive number of strategic errors, unheeded alerts, missed appointments, hasty decisions, short- termism, unfounded forecasts, risky bets and regulatory or legislative gas works.
In other words, according to the unusually scathing words of the commission’s rapporteur, Antoine Armand (Renaissance, Haute-Savoie), the investigation is akin to the “story of a slow drift, of a political wandering, often unconscious and inconsequential, which has distanced us both from the ecological transition and from our energy sovereignty”. “Often, we went from incomprehension to surprise, to consternation”adds the parliamentarian.
The myth of French energy independence
Chaired by Les Républicains deputy Raphaël Schellenberger (Haut-Rhin), the commission worked in a very particular context, marked by government alerts on the lack of electricity and the risk of power cuts at the time of winter consumption peaks. The reasons for this are known, in particular the weaknesses of the nuclear fleet. From 452 terawatt hours in 2005, production fell to 279 terawatt hours in 2022. The worst result ever recorded in EDF’s history, due to reactor shutdowns (32 out of 56 in August 2022), the time in particular to check and to repair “stress corrosion” phenomena, a generic defect discovered at the end of 2021.
France has certainly never been independent from an energy point of view. The power of nuclear power, as it is taught in history textbooks, however let believe, at least, that it could be it durably on the plan of electricity. The year 2022 has been a painful wake-up call as energy prices have skyrocketed due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But this singularly complicated year is not an accident, rather the result of the sedimentation of decisions and“mistakes”as the rapporteur of the committee writes. “After peaking in 2005, national electricity production stagnated in the following years and even began to decline from 2015 with the gradual decline in nuclear production”note the deputies.
You have 81.94% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.