He fears a “quadrupling” of bills. The communist mayor of Montataire, a town of 13,600 inhabitants near Creil, in the Oise, threatened on Monday “to stop paying” for electricity in his town if nothing is done to relieve the communities facing to rising prices.
“There, it is impossible. We don’t have a war chest, we have to vote for a balanced budget. How do I find the missing 1.9 million euros? What service am I closing? I stop school catering, I close the town hall three days a week? “Questioned the mayor of Montataire, Jean-Pierre Bosino, in a press release.
“We must return to the regulated rate”
Faced with soaring electricity prices on the wholesale market – which exceeded 1,000 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) on Friday, against 85 a year ago – the city’s bill could go up in 2023, at the end of the current contract, “from 600,000 euros to 2.5 million euros”, explained the elected official.
Unlike individuals, “local authorities are subject to the market price from a certain level of budget and agents. Today, it is untenable! We must return to the regulated tariff, ”he pleaded with AFP. “It is because an essential good has been delivered to the Stock Exchange that we are here. Speculation in electricity and gas costs the many but brings a lot to the few,” he lamented.
“The green fund is blank”
Moreover, he believes that “it is not normal that EDF is forced to sell electricity at 50 euros per MWh to its competitors, which costs it 8 billion which are missing from the maintenance of the power stations”. “Gas and electricity must be taken out of the stock market,” he demanded. “If nothing is done by the government” to relieve the communities, “we will no longer pay the bills, and I call on all the communities affected by this phenomenon to do the same”, he continued.
The green fund endowed with 1.5 billion euros intended for communities to “help them in accelerating their ecological transition”, “it’s blank”, still judged Mr. Bosino. “Of course we have to work on this transition, but in any case we will have to continue to light up our streets, our schools, make computer services work…”