“Too late, too little” – brake on electricity price: AK happy, opposition angry

According to information from the federal government, each household should pay a lower electricity price for that share of electricity consumption that corresponds to 80 percent of the average consumption of an Austrian household in the previous year. The limit should be 2900 kWh. Anything above that must be paid at the current market price. Details of the model will be presented on Wednesday. In that case, a decision must also be made in the Council of Ministers about the brake on the electricity price.

AK wants “electricity price ceiling plus”
The key points already published correspond in principle to the energy price ceiling for households demanded by the AK and ÖGB, the AK stated in a broadcast on Monday. However, for about 780,000 low-income households, the AK advocates an “electricity price cap plus” by providing for an increase in the subsidized amount of electricity or a lower electricity price. In addition, a price brake is also required for natural gas and district heating. In order to finance this, according to the AK proposal, profits must be skimmed from companies that benefit from the energy crisis.

SPÖ business spokesman Christoph Matznetter also calls for the gas price rises to be eased. Together with deputy club boss Jörg Leichtfried, he criticized “that people themselves are slowing down the price of electricity” – direct intervention in the pricing of energy is necessary. With the planned model, the government “seamlessly continues the mistakes of the past in the fight against inflation,” Leichtfried said. The electricity price brake only comes into effect in the winter and is also “far too little”.

“sieve to scoop”
The brake on the electricity price comes too late and too complicated for FPÖ boss Kickl. He again called for an exit from the sanctions against Russia. “With the sanctions, the ÖVP, Greens, SPÖ and NEOS have flooded the basement, they are still letting water in and the government is giving the population a sieve that they have to pay for themselves,” Kickl muttered on a broadcast. The FPÖ wants to request a referendum from the National Council to get out of the sanctions – if you don’t succeed, you can also consider a referendum.

The NEOS, which criticized the plans of the turquoise-green coalition on Sunday evening, followed suit on Monday. The government can think of nothing else “than to hand out expensive one-off payments with the watering can”, NEOS economic and social spokesman Gerald Loacker was also dissatisfied with per broadcast. In return, he lacks sustainable emergency measures and savings.

“Antisocial and harmful to the climate”
“GLOBAL 2000” identified a clear need for improvement: the environmental protection organization is not accurate with the current proposal. According to an initial estimate by the NGO, households in which few people live and with relatively high energy consumption would benefit the most. The NGO “Attac” also ruled that the brake on the electricity price is “antisocial and harmful to the climate”. The proposal does not take household size into account, nor does it include progressive “wasteful luxury consumption” tariffs. In addition, there is no incentive for the large number of small households to save energy.

“Oesterreichs Energie”, the e-business interest group, described the previously known key points as “unbureaucratic and customer-friendly solution”. There is praise for the fact that no separate application is required. “Practical solutions” must now also be found for implementation. The start on 1 December is “pretty ambitious”.