(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Forget NATO. Forget the EU. Forget EEA. If the three parties come together for government negotiations after the 2005 elections, it is not these issues that will create trouble. Nor are they the cases where the parties have to fight for how much money to spend on purposes they otherwise agree on.
The cases that will create trouble are the cases where the Labor Party, the Socialist People's Party and the Socialist People's Party are pulling in different directions. And where the questions come up for realpolitik treatment in the Storting. Then the environmental area stands out as a "worst".
One can only mention the gap between SV and Ap on the one hand and the Center Party on the other when the question of land ownership rights comes up. In the past, disagreements over landowners' rights have mostly been about land tenure, but the environmental issues lie: They are not least about landscape protection and forest protection where landowner interests are involved. Then the Center Party separates teams with the other two. As they do, for example, when it comes to predator management.
And it was just the Center Party. For them, the landowners are more important than the environment. For Aps, we're talking about the industry.
The Labor Party, in collaboration with LO, has led an intense campaign to pressure the SV to change its view of gas power plants. LO leader Gerd-Liv Valla, her deputy leader Roar Flåthen and several federal leaders have repeatedly claimed that SV lacks an industrial and / or industrial policy. However, the concretisation of the slightly ugly criticism has always boiled down to the fact that SV and LO / Ap disagree on gas. For it is the landing and use of gas in Norway which, one should believe LO, is what will secure Norwegian industry in the future.
Now you can say what you want about the Labor Party's and LO's monomaniacal views on the social healing effects of gas. SV's attitude to gas power also does not appear to be very wise. The party has not contented itself with saying no to polluting gas power plants in Norway. They will also, according to the work program for this parliamentary term, “work to prevent the construction of gas power plants in Norway. CO2-free gas power plants can only be built to provide the shelf with electric power. ” It is, of course, a point of view that does not stand up to reality.
And that is this point of view, that is to say no to gas power plants as well for – or barely – pollutes, the party's deputy leader Henriette Westhrin now advocates for change. She is supported by parliamentary representative and former nature conservation association leader Heidi Sørensen, provided that the gas-fired power plants in question are in fact virtually pollution-free, while the party's environmental policy spokesman Hallgeir Langeland is dismissive. He would rather invest the resources in energy efficiency and alternative energy sources, and believes that gas power is a derailment.
There is little doubt that Westhrin's view, which has already garnered great support in SV, will win through as the party's position after the national assembly next year. Although it is probably not intended as an approach to the Labor Party, the SVs will hope that it is received in this way. And it may be needed, because SV's (and the Center Party's) no to polluting gas power plants will be an ultimatum in the government negotiations.
And a yes to (virtually) pollution-free gas power plants? Well, even the pollutants are so expensive to build that it is difficult to get around. The "clean" power plants will not be cheaper, so SV's possible acceptance is not worth all the world.
The question then – and it gets no answer either now, before the election or during the government negotiations, but during the annual budget negotiations in the Storting – is whether and how much the public sector should subsidize the construction of pollution-free gas power plants.
The Labor Party will of course work hard for public subsidies, and the pressure will also be present in SV (not least from Westhrin's home county Telemark) and the Center Party (not least from the SP bastion Trøndelag). Then Hallgeir Langeland can say: What did I say? This money is taken from investing in energy efficiency and alternative energy.
The question the SV national meeting next year should therefore decide on is not om one should allow pollution-free gas-fired power plants, but whether one should accept that the state pays for them. It will be a tug-of-war that extends far into the next parliamentary term – and a government collaboration between SV, Labor and the Center Party.
