Isabel Díaz Ayuso has officially started the political course as the previous one ended just a month ago, confronting the central government on energy matters. The President of the Community of Madrid has appeared at a press conference after the Autonomous Government Council held, advancing that she will send Moncloa a battery of suggestions on energy matters in the next few hours and that pivot on three needs: lower the price of electricity , reduce dependence on gas and its consumption.
“You have to give the Spaniards the answers that the Government is denying them,” he justified himself after urging Sánchez to immediately lower the price of electricity.
Ayuso has lamented the lack of dialogue with the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and has reproached him for “not having shared any information or document” with the autonomous community he directs to the point of ignoring the measures on which the Executive claims to be working. “We only know the royal decree law that imposes measures on cafeterias, bars. Obligations instead of recommendations as the European Commission has made,” Ayuso has disfigured Sánchez.
The Madrid president also criticizes that the Executive is carrying out a “pointing out and an imposition on the private sector, which is being held responsible for what is not their fault”, she defended.
Ayuso’s main suggestion is to lower the price of electricity. The popular leader considers it “essential because none of the measures adopted by the Government has served to avoid paying much more for electricity.” “This has to be done through taxes, first, and reviewing, a posteriori, the gas cap system”, she stated.
Sources from Ayuso’s team state that “its perverse effects have caused gas consumption to generate electricity to increase; our dependence on gas that we do not have in Spain and we have to buy abroad has also increased; and that we continue to pay the bill most expensive in our history.
Regarding the recommendation to reduce dependence on gas, which also appears in the letter that the Community of Madrid will send to the National Government in the next few hours, Ayuso considers it essential to configure an energy mix with a strong penetration of renewable energies and a correct
proportion of nuclear power as a backup source. “However, Spain is the only country in Europe that does not consider revising the calendar of the useful life of its nuclear power plants”, he has reproached him.
In this sense, the Minister for the Environment, Paloma Martín, has defended the need to review the gas cap mechanism, which, “since its entry into force has raised the wholesale price of electricity by 41%, negatively affecting both companies and individuals. “It is a poorly designed measure with perverse effects that all families and companies are paying in their electricity bills,” she stressed.
The third pillar of Sol’s energy plan, with which Madrid seeks to reduce gas consumption, includes measures such as the implementation of a Boiler Renewal Plan, with the aim of massively updating old natural gas models with new condensing ones, that reduce consumption by between 15 and 20% and can lead to “savings for the consumer of between 80 and 100 euros” in the harshest winter months.
As defended, the counselor Paloma Martín this investment could be made through the Next Generation European funds.
