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Polish Briefing 26 October, 2021 11:00 am   

Polish Briefing: Hołownia calls for unity to pursue energy transition | New bill to help with rising gas costs for households

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What goes on in Poland on the 26th of October.

Hołownia appeals for unity for energy transition

Experts associated with Szymon Hołownia (leader of an opposition party outside of the Sejm – ed.) presented a report with proposals on the energy policy of the Republic of Poland. “We need to discuss what to do to make sure that the rising inflation, fuelled by the high power and gas prices, doesn’t bleed us dry,” Szymon Hołownia said during the presentation of his experts’ vision of Poland’s pursuit of climate neutrality. He called for cross-party actions in favor of the energy transition.

“Energy prices are rising at a pace that is slowly creating a threat to household budgets and the economy. We prepared this report a few months ago in which we warned that we were headed for a catastrophe. Our indolence, thanks not only to the United Right government, but also to its predecessors, has put us in the place we are today. We have to ask ourselves what to do to prevent 40-50 thousand Poles from dying annually due to air pollution, what to do to prevent insurance against natural disasters from causing a collapse of the entire system,” Szymon Hołownia asked.

“The government convinced us that we can go in a separate compartment for smokers on this green train, and even that Mateusz Morawiecki will be able to stop it,” assessed Hołownia. In his opinion, measures for climate neutrality and ensuring adequate generation capacity must be taken immediately. “This problem is about to tighten the noose around our neck. This loop must be loosened. We must make the state a trustworthy partner in this process. The gent has done a lot to undermine our trust in the state,” Hołownia stated.

A draft law has been submitted to the Sejm, to help curb the increase in gas prices in households

Law and Justice MPs submitted to the Sejm a “Draft act amending the Energy Law”, the aim of which is to minimize gas price increases for households, while ensuring that energy companies can recover the costs of purchasing this fuel, the Sejm website said.

“The proposed mechanism guarantees the energy company the possibility of subsequent recovery of the actually incurred costs, the forecast of which in the event of a dynamic increase in prices (of gas – ed. PAP Biznes) is subject to extraordinary risk. The possibility of adding these costs to the prices for household consumers in the long term (36 months starting from January 1, 2023) will prevent the risk of a large, cumulative and one-off increase in 2022. Having the prospect of recovering the actual cost of the gas, a power company can in an organized and planned manner, secure the necessary debt financing in the transitional period of non-recovery of costs. To this end, the proposed regulations allow energy companies to include in the justified costs, the possible costs of external financing of the transfer of uncovered income to the following years,” the draft says.