sometime soon the penny will drop ...

... to the dollar and strategic value of significant domestic French gas ... EPG shareholders need only sit and wait imo.

There are several paraagraphs in the following article that a particularly telling imo.

Any takers for the EGM in Sydney this week?

Cheers
Poyndexter

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Fear of Russia marks Europe's green policy

Doug Saunders
On the surface, it was an act of ecological virtue: European Union leaders introduced a policy that would see its 500 million citizens cut their greenhouse-gas emissions by a fifth over the next 13 years, by far the world's largest global-warming pledge.

But behind the ambitious proposed continent-wide policy is another motive: a terrible fear of Russia's near-total power to control Europe's energy future.

That is what led to the pledge by Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, to rebuild his continent's energy system, from light bulbs in Bulgarian homes to nuclear plants in Germany -- an enormously expensive set of measures.

"Europe must lead the world in a new postindustrial revolution leading to the development of a low-carbon economy," Mr. Barroso said.

The plan, which includes building renewable power plants, extending the life of nuclear plants and a range of subsidized consumer initiatives, now requires approval from the bloc's 27 members.

"If this was adopted it would be by far the most ambitious policy ever, not only in Europe but the world, against climate change," Mr. Barroso said.

Not only did Europe pledge to cut its energy consumption and carbon emissions by 20 percent (from 1990 levels) by 2020, but Mr. Barroso issued a challenge to Canada, Australia and the United States: If these countries are willing to join the plan, Europe will raise its reduction pledge to the 30-percent mark favored by several of the wealthier EU countries.

Underlying this bold program is not just the fear of global warming, which has already been acknowledged in Europe's participation in the Kyoto Protocol, but a renewed fear of Russian dominance.

That was underscored this week when a political feud between Alexander Lukashenko, the leader of Communist Belarus, and Russian President Vladimir Putin led Russia to shut off the pipeline that carries a third of Europe's oil supplies across Belarus.

That feud -- involving a duty that Belarus planned to charge Russia to transport oil across its territory -- appeared to have been defused, according to Belarussian sources. Oil transportation resumed.

But the problem was a repeat of an event almost a year ago, when Russia fought a similar dispute with Ukraine over subsidized energy supplies, then shut off the natural-gas shipment to most of Europe for several days.

The spat left Europe angry and vocal about the risks of overdependence on a single supplier. A similar dispute has recently erupted in Azerbaijan, whose Russian-controlled pipelines carry major oil and gas supplies to Southern Europe.

Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reacted angrily to Russia's control over energy supplies, and said her country will need to dramatically reduce its power use and change plans to move away from nuclear power.

"The current crisis shows that in order to become more independent, we first have to redouble our own efforts to achieve higher energy efficiency and arrive at a more competitive energy market," Ms. Merkel told reporters.

Russia currently supplies about 26 percent of Europe's oil and more than 29 percent of its gas, and this is expected to rise to more than 60 percent in the next two decades as North Sea supplies dwindle.

But the continent's level of dependency on Russia is far more serious than it appears, analysts say, because the Russian energy monopoly Gazprom has such a broad control over Europe's energy supplies and distribution that even a 20-percent cut in consumption will do little to affect the situation.

"Europe tries to approach the problem geographically -- instead of getting oil and gas from Russia, they'll try to get it from Algeria or the Caucasus, as they already do," said Jon Levy of the Eurasia Group, a think tank devoted to Russian-European economic relations. "The biggest impediment in this is that Gazprom has gained control of the transit (pipeline) networks from these regions, and in some cases of the downstream (refining) resources; they've cut supply deals with major European suppliers. So even Algerian gas and gas from the Caucasus is moving through Gazprom pipelines and falls under Russian service contracts, so you haven't accomplished a great deal."

Proposed energy policy called for a partial breakup of the continent's large oil companies, such as E.ON AG and Gaz de France, by separating production and distribution assets to boost competitiveness.

But analysts said this is unlikely to deal with the core problem. Many of these companies have long-term agreements with Gazprom that make them highly dependent on Russian energy. And breaking up the industry could prevent Europe from being able to build its own counterweight to Gazprom's might.

Main points from the EU proposal Greenhouse-gas emissions:

A unilateral target would reduce European Union greenhouse-gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, increasing to 30 percent if other developed countries agree to hit the same target. Renewable energy sources:

A binding target of producing 20 percent of EU energy needs, including power generation and biofuels, from renewable sources by 2020.

Biofuels: Produced largely from crops and creating few emissions, biofuels should account for at least 10 percent of vehicle fuel in the EU by 2020.

Energy efficiency: A previous EU target is renewed: improving energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2020.

Competition: A preference for requiring power-generating utilities to sell off distribution assets as the most effective way to make the sector more competitive and drive down prices. A second option would let utilities retain ownership of their grids while turning over management to an independent system operator.

Energy diplomacy: The EU should speak with one voice when negotiating with energy producers such as Russia, Norway and Algeria.

Nuclear power: Whether to use it remains up to individual governments, but moves to cut nuclear output should be accompanied by introduction of supplementary low-carbon energy sources.

Regulatory control: A mechanism giving the EU the chance to review some decisions of national regulators that affect the internal market. Carbon capture and storage:

Expansion of CCS technology use to curb emissions, creation of 12 large-scale demonstration plants by 2015 and a 2020 deadline for fitting new coal-fired plants.

(Source: globeandmail.com)