FRANCE STRIKES: Green Energy Faces the Cold Truth of Higher Prices

October 19, 2022 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

By Ekaterina Pokrovsky @ Shutterstock.com

Your Survival Guy’s on-the-ground discussions with locals in France have turned up a mixed bag of the opinions reflected in polls on the issues of energy and inflation. France’s energy worker unions are on strike for higher wages just as the country is dealing with high inflation and potential shortages of energy. There is no easy solution when the problem of green energy faces the reality of higher prices. Reuters reports:

A nationwide strike on Thursday disrupted the French energy sector, taking a large chunk of the nuclear production offline, as workers push for a pay hike amid rising tensions between unions and the government over a planned pensions reform.

“Thousands of workers are on strike today,” said Philippe Martinez, chief of the hard-left CGT union as he attended a protest march in Paris along with several thousand people, many of them waving red labour union flags.

“This is a message to the government but also to the Medef,” he added, referring to France’s main employer association.

Thursday’s walkouts came amid a concerted call by some unions for company bosses to raise wages due to high inflation. They followed months of individual strike actions across business sectors including transportation, retail and education.

More than 60% of France’s refining capacity was off line due to strikes and unfulfilled maintenance plans. Strikes also hit TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) refineries for a third day.

A 24-hour strike by electricity union FNME hit France’s already stretched power grid.

The strike, heeded by roughly a fifth of the workforce, reduced nuclear power generation by 3.5 gigawatts (GW) by 1245 GMT and by 470 megawatts (MW) at hydropower stations – an overall 9% reduction in production capacity, according to utility EDF.

Action Line: Have you secured your family’s energy supply? What happens if there’s a strike in the U.S.? Do you have a wood stove or fireplace or some other form of independent heating for your home? The end of the time to make the necessary preparations is quickly approaching. Winter is coming, and prices are high. If you need the motivation to make the right choices for your family, click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, and I’ll push you to beat inertia and achieve your goals.

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

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