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Jérôme à Paris's avatar

Liberalization works well when you have a surplus of gas - as you have in the US. It is not surprise that it was promoted in the UK when gas production was growing and even allowed for exports - with plentiful supply, marginal prices of electricity could be kept very low.

By the way, it is not an accident that Ukraine (and its gas pipelines) entered the consciousness of the WEst in 2006 - that's the year the nthe UK became a net importer of gas again and Whitehall panicked - where will we find our energy? They tried to "steal" French and German (plentiful) storage but that did not fly, but suddenly the fact that Ukraine had been taking gas from the Russian export pipelines (something they had done every single year since 1992, without anybody caring) became a major geopolitical issue and allowed to blame an outside force for the shortsightedness of UK policy.

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David Toke's avatar

Liberalisation of gas is certainly so far counted as a success in the USA. However there is a growing chance that the US will export so much of its gas that domestic US gas prices will be globalised - and US consumers will start paying much higher global prices!

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Elfed Jones's avatar

Interesting analysis and we must not forget that Thatcher used Nth Sea revenues to pay for 3 million on the dole ???

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David Toke's avatar

yes, and there would have been a lot more revenues later if she had not sold off BP and the British National Oil Corporation!

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Elfed Jones's avatar

Some people have short memories and others are “ not so blind as they who don’t wish to see !

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