Cogs can think.

There was kind of a turmoil in our lower house yesterday. Members of the lower house were asking questions to our secretaries– yesterday, the growing energy costs that households are facing was the primary issue.

One of the energy companies in my country, Nuon, has said that they expect energy costs per household to rise by E140,- next year, due to the increasing price of oil. Two parties in the lower house, CDA and PvdA (of which the former is in the government, and the latter is not) want the government to somehow ‘catch’ that rise in costs (obviously because the government gets *a lot* of taxes from selling gas, since we have a *huge* gas bubble in the ground in the northern part of my country, and the price of gas is linked to the price of oil).

I find that to be appalling, actually.

Why should the rich people in this country be given anything extra because they have to pay a lousy E140,- extra? It is not as if the biggest part of my country can’t afford that extra money, hell, we’re one of the richest nations in the world!

It is good if the people who are at the bottom of society are given compensation, that is normal and should be done by any self-respecting government. But, why, for instance, my parents? There’s absolutely no need to give E140,- to us. We are rich enough, goddamnit.

Give it to the people who *really* need it.

Other than that, increasing energy prices may actually draw attention to the fact that oil is not here to stay, and that we, as the EU, should invest heavily in the alternative (hydrogen). It is really needed to start constructing plans to create an infrastructure for hydrogen, similar as we now have to deliver oil/petrol/gas. If we do that *now*, it will give us a head-start over the US in the coming few decades.