European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for the implementation of “mandatory” energy rationing throughout the EU during peak hours in order to “flatten the curve” of demand amid the largely self-inflicted energy crisis befalling the bloc.
In a stunningly poor public relations move, EU President Ursula von der Leyen harkened back to the early days of the Chinese coronavirus crisis when citizens across the world were told to accept a brief period of lockdowns to “flatten the curve” of Covid infections, though this ultimately proved false, with two weeks quickly turning into over two years of restrictions for many across Europe and beyond.
During a speech on Wednesday proposing energy rationing measures to be put in place before the Winter months when demand peaks, the EU president said: “During peak demand, the expensive gas comes into the market. So what we have to do is flatten the curve to avoid the peak demands, we will propose a mandatory target for reducing electricity use at peak hours and we will work very closely with the member states to achieve this.”
“These are tough times and they’re not over soon,” von der Leyen said. “But I am convinced that Europeans have the economic strength, the political will, and unity to keep the upper hand.”
The use of the same rhetoric from the early stages of the Wuhan virus outbreak is ominous given that there does not appear to be an end in sight for the energy crisis enrapturing the continent, meaning that energy rationing could become another “new normal” that citizens will be forced to accept.Indeed, late last month, Ben van Beurden, the chief executive of multinational oil and gas giant Shell warned that Europe will face years of shortages, saying: “It may well be that we will have a number of winters where we have to somehow find solutions.”
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