The Chairman of Repsol, Antonio Brufau, has assured this Friday during the closing of a day of analysis on the ‘World Energy Outlook 2022’ that “Europe has failed in the energy transition because it has only placed the emphasis on sustainability” and has Forgotten security of supply.
In addition, Brufau has claimed that Europe has not calibrated the “most efficient path” for “reasonable decarbonisation” and has put all the regulatory emphasis on energy sustainability and forgotten about security of supply. She has pointed out that just as Spain, in order not to be excessively dependent on Algerian gas, built regasification plants that “have cost the Spanish citizen a lot”, it is surprising that Germany and Europe have allowed themselves to depend on Russia for gas supplies.
According to Brufau, this “is not a Russian problem”, but “our problem of having made a strategic mistake; but Germany commands a lot and has had a very competitive energy for its industries that has allowed it to gain market shares” in Europe ” at the expense of others”, according to Europa Press
In the US they will subsidize the electric vehicle
Brufau has contrasted what the European Union (EU) does with what the United States does, which in its Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) “seeks security of supply in all variables” and “makes all the energies that help the decarbonization of society can enter”.
He has defined the IRA as a pragmatic and not dogmatic law, which allows companies to think about whether they are interested in investing, for example, in carbon capture and to know at what price the United States will subsidize the investment. “This does not happen in Europe,” said Brufau, who added that “in Europe we only say renewable, renewable at the expense of everything else.”
The president of Repsol has indicated that in the United States there is talk of also subsidizing the electric vehicle, but the internal combustion engine car is not denied, “since the US president understands that the citizen is older to decide if he wants a car or another .
“Europe orders, commands and regulates, and if it is not clear, it prohibits”
He has also highlighted contradictions such as the one expressed by the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, who encourages not to stop investing in combustion cars because, although it cannot be used in Europe, it can be sold abroad. For Brufau, this is irresponsible, because if we ban the combustion engine, “let’s believe it.”
Brufau, who has said that the only thing Europe can boast of is having put CO2 “under the rug”, reducing emissions on the continent, but purchasing products from countries where they increase, has indicated that every day there are more regulations and regulation, and every day it is “a little bit worse” and all it does “is confuse people. That is the case of green hydrogen, according to Brufau, who has said that if he was betting “why are barriers placed on him.”
Calls on European rulers to “stop improvising”
In this sense, he has pointed out that if the regulation of green hydrogen in Spain is taken, “it is to commit suicide” because it has to depend on new renewable energy, to be in some time slots. The Repsol president indicated his discontent, “But what are you telling me? I’m going to the United States to produce hydrogen and they let me work there.”
On the other hand, he pointed out that, if the cost of inflation and the financial tensions of the banks, both on the rise, do not allow the channeling of resources for large investments in renewables and networks, the transition may be in question, while He has asked the European rulers to think about stopping improvising and to start planning.
