Development Minister Adonis Georgiadis urged Greeks to seek alternative ways for heating, warning that the upcoming winter will be worse than the one in 1942, when the country suffered famine due to occupation by the German Nazis in WWII.
Heating oil is currently 6 times cheaper than natural gas. the minister told MEGA TV on Saturday.
The coming winter will be the most difficult in the last 80 years for Greece and Europe, with electricity now an “utility” available for a few.
“Europe and Greece are entering the most difficult winter since 1942. Anyone who can find an alternative way to heat their home for the winter, find it,” he said.
“Oil is currently 6 times cheaper than natural gas. Putin is using natural gas as a weapon against Europe, he is not only attacking Ukraine, he is an enemy of the EU. All European citizens should know that we are in an economic, trade, energy war with Russia, and take action against energy crisis,” he added.
Gerogiadis said that an information campaign on how households and businesses can save by reducing the already huge energy costs.
“There will be an immediate public information campaign by the Ministry of Environment and Energy on how to act this winter in order to reduce the enormous damage that our economy and our pocketbook will suffer from the energy war of Putin in Europe. We must keep in mind that we should not spend the electricity in the way we did it in the past. Electricity is already too expensive”, he continued
Speaking about the state subsidies on electricity, the minister said “after Mitsotakis’ interventions on energy, we have not yet realized how expensive electricity is in our bill. What we see on our bills is what the government pays. We all have to operate now, with electricity savings in mind. There is no doubt that the Greek government will continue to support the citizens. The economy is doing very well, better than all European countries, we have a triple record of investment and tourism, our best performance in the history of our country.”
Regarding the reduction of the excise tax on fuel, Georgiadis said that, “our policies will be targeted at those in need, and will not be general measures.”
State broadcaster ERT reported Sunday afternoon that the price of heating oil will be up this winter, at 1.8 euros per liter.
How affordable is it have an alternative heating way?
PS While we will be waiting for the Energy Ministry campaign, one has to ask: How easy is to replace our current heating means and especially: can we afford it when inflation is over 11%?
For example: in our residential building we have semi-autonomous gas heating and many apartments have also a fireplace. Half of the owners/tenants shut down the gas heating last January, when the bill for December (3 months before Putin’s war!) was 3 times higher than in previous years. Some struggled until end of March with A/C or portable heaters and suffered an electricity-bill shock later. Others, tried to provide heating to their families with the fire place with not fully satisfactory results and realized the the firewood price was going up each month.
Ahead of the heating season in October, firewood price is already twice than in previous year and the pellet is up 3 times, some media and social post post report.
Note that the subsidy for heating last winter was not received by all those eligible due to bureaucratic hurdles and some 20 people in total died in home fires caused by cheap heating devices
So what can the affordable heating alternative? It’s not easy to build a fireplace in your apartment or to switch from natural gas to heating oil, especially in residential buildings and thus a few years after they switched from oil to gas.
So what will you do this winter? POLL!
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The EU has sanctioned Russia and are not certifying Nord Stream 2. Much of the rest of the world has not sanctioned Russia. The Minister speaks of Putin weaponising natural gas against Europe whilst Europe sends actual weapons to the conflict. I am wondering whether Greece is under occupation again. Beats me, all of this is above my pay grade as Russia continues to coin it in.
I’ve not answered the poll because it does not quite fit my reality. I live on Crete, not in a major mainland city like Athens, so gas is very much not the norm. I suppose some people have large gas tanks but it is not common.
I have oil fired central heating and if I use that exclusively I might use 2,000 litres through the winter. If the €1.80 price proves to be realistic that will cost me an extra €1,600 roughly. I will need to find that out of savings or cut down on something else. Given that I live a fairly frugal lifestyle I guess it will have to be the former.
I also have a wood burning closed fireplace that is quite efficient. If I can manage to build somewhere to store the wood before the bad weather sets in, as the existing one is in an advanced state of collapse, and wood is available at a reasonable price then that would be a cheaper alternative but if everybody switches to wood it might not be as easy to obtain or as cheap as it has been in the past. I must admit at 76 with a somewhat dodgy heart the thought of the effort of building a wood store and then using a wheelbarrow to move 4 tonne of wood from the front of the house to the store is not that appealing.
I suppose that most closely fits with “Fireplace also combined with other means” if I can find the personal energy to achieve it.
Firewood was 120-140/tn last year, currently is at 200. The year before it was 80-90.
Ich zahle gerne mehr.(solange ich es kann)..einem Aggressor wie Putin darf man nicht nachgeben…es wird uns alle hart treffen aber ernsthaft, wollen wir leben wie Menschen in Russland..ohne unsere eigene Meinung kund tuen zu dürfen …never ever…diesen Winter schaffen wir auch ohne russisches Gas/Oel
I’m in full agreement with you, Einwanderer. Putin wants to recreate the Russian Empire with him as Tsar. There is a very good poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller entitled “First They Came”. It was written about the Holocaust but it is pretty easy to rephrase it to represent today’s conflict. For example rephrase the first triplet as:
First he attacked the Ukraine
And I did nothing
Because I was not a Ukrainian
Then rephrase the following triplets in the same way using different countries that used to be part of the Russian Empire, and beyond, until you reach your own country, which should appear in the form of the last triplet.
Translated to English from German “I’ll gladly pay more (as long as I can)..You can’t give in to an aggressor like Putin…it will hit us all hard but seriously, let’s live like people in Russia…without being allowed to express our own opinion…never ever…this winter we can manage without Russian gas/oil ”
Quelle-surprise – A German happy to shoot Europe in the foot again. Who do you think you speak for “We can manage without Russian gas/oil” Who is “we” and what makes you think you are the arbiter here? There are many ethnic tensions between Germany and Russia (as history notes), don’t drag the rest of Europe into this quagmire. Hatred is such a terrible thing it will consume an individual if they let it together with forming one’s opinion by omission. Europe is being devastated by the sanctions and the idiotic policies pushed by the European Commission and Ursula von der Leyen. I will repeat again “Hatred is such a terrible thing it will consume an individual if they let it “
well said Mike!
My landlord just installed natural gas last winter (and gave me a big rent hike to pay for the work!). Before that I just had space heaters, but they cost way too much (1k every 3 months during winter). I’m very stressed about what we will face this year. I am personally not happy about cutting off Russian gas to punish Russia. I feel like we are punishing ourselves.
I can’t believe we are all just accepting our National and EU leaders destroying our way of life and enriching themselves and their clients with our money through subsidized market interventions.
it’s time for them all to go. You will see governments fall all over Europe except here, because our choice is between dumb and dumber
You forgot a 7th proposal :
Change our current EUR politicians ?
Having been urged to convert to gas as it is supposed to be cleaner and many have done so. That appalling, gloating Adonis suggests we now use oil. Fat cats who don’t give a fig about us, getting richer on our misery. It’s all about ‘I’m alright Jack!’.