The energy bill, a new headache for mayors

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Posted Oct 3, 2022, 5:00 PM

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A headache for States since the start of the war in Ukraine, energy prices also affect the functioning of French municipalities and local authorities. While the hunt for energy waste is simmering, Limoges has closed its swimming pool and Strasbourg has announced an energy sobriety plan including distance learning courses for schools and delayed ignition of the heating as well as a less bright Christmas market. In Angers, heating in schools will be limited to 19° and in Lille, among 18 measures announced, we will hunt for auxiliary radiators in the administrations, deprive ourselves of the winter ice rink, and group together all the centers of recreation in one sector.

The northern city estimates that its bill for this year, already up with just over 14 million euros, should rise again to 16 million next year. In Clermont-Ferrand we will turn off the public lighting from midnight to 6 a.m., with the very exception of the hyper-city center and in Paris, the most greedy, it is the lighting of the buildings which have been removed from from 10 p.m. If the big cities have started the ball rolling, the restrictions should quickly win over the small ones.

Territorial blackout

Over the half of 2022 the expenditure is already for some more important than that of the whole year 2021. An outbreak that the fixed budget could not anticipate. Energy prices have taken another turn since the invasion of Ukraine. The situation is unprecedented and plunges town halls into the pain of closing equipment. Some fear a territorial “blackout” with degraded services to residents. The State will renew the tariff shield already in place for the 28,000 smaller municipalities and which caps the increase in the energy bill at 15%. For the association of mayors of France, this does not go far enough and should take into account all the cities, including the most important, with the most numerous facilities.

La Story is a podcast from Les Echos presented by Pierrick Fay. This episode was recorded in September 2022. Editor-in-chief: Clémence Lemaistre. Guests: Laurent Thévenin (journalist in the SME Regions department of “Echos”) and Christophe Bouillon (Mayor of Barentin and President of the Association of Small Towns of France – APVF). Directed by: Willy Ganne. Production and publishing manager: Michèle Warnet. Music: Théo Boulenger. Graphic identity: Upian. Photo: Shutterstock. Sounds: TF1, “Mission Impossible” Theme, Hypnolove “The swimming pool”, University of Strasbourg, Fatal Bazooka “Fous Ta Cagoule”, Sound effects in stock, Singing Bell, Mouloudji “La lamente de la tour Eiffel”, Axel Bauer “Eteins La Lumière”, “The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob” (1973), Jérémy Ferrari.

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