In a recent interview with Dagsavisen said Storting representative Bengt Rune Strifeldt (Frp) that one of the reasons why the Progress Party is Finnmark’s largest party is that the party is strongly opposed to the electrification of Melkøya.
Today, Equinor’s gas plant on Melkøya in Hammerfest emits 920,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually. In August 2023, the government announced that they would electrify production as an important climate measure. It will require a lot of power, and people in Finnmark are worried that it will lead to high power prices and a lack of power. The Sámi Parliament is strongly against electrification and decided in June to take legal action against the state over the decision.
Rødt’s Sofie Marhaug believes that the FRP’s policy is contradictory. They will not electrify Melkøya, but they will electrify the Wisting field in the Barents Sea. Then you are the same distance.
– The FRP is getting away with power politics in Finnmark too cheaply. It is all well and good that they are against the electrification of Melkøya, but they are in favor of the electrification of the Wisting field, which they have put forward a proposal for in this parliamentary term. This will present the same problems as the electrification of Melkøya, Marhaug believes.
– If they are going to develop the Wisting field, it must be electrified since there is around 95 per cent oil there. But they are so in favor of oil that they still want to develop the field, she says.
Wisting is an oil field located 300 km from the Finnmark coast in the Barents Sea. Equinor is the main operator of the field, which is believed to contain 500 million barrels of oil. Last year, Equinor decided to postpone the development by four years due to the demanding supplier situation.
– Boom shot from Red
Bengt Rune Strifeldt (Frp) believes Rødt is completely wrong.
– This adds to the barrage from Rødt. They can’t tell the difference between snot and moustache. We say no to the electrification of Melkøya with power from land because there are several alternatives. But for Wisting, there are no other options than with power from land, says Strifeldt.
– I understand the intention from Rødt. They say no to all oil and gas exploration in Norway, but the income is used by them. I would like to see an alternative budget from Rødt without oil and gas revenues, says Strifeldt.
Merciless showdown
In the FRP’s party program it is stated that the party is against wind power, but it does not say that they are in favor of Porsanger. Here, local Frp politicians want to build out the Skarvberget wind power plant with 50 turbines and 30 kilometers of roads five meters wide.
Editor of the newspaper Sagat, Geir Wulff takes a merciless reckoning with the decision in the comments section: “Today’s biggest threat to democracy is politicians who say one thing before the election, and betray the trust they get from the voters by doing the exact opposite afterwards. Those who are directly affected by political madness, both locally and nationally, and who speak out clearly about this, on the other hand, call our good democratic values.”
Leader Stig-Ronny Nilsen in Porsanger Frp responds just as forcefully in a reader post in the same newspaper: “That the parties led the voters astray in this autumn’s election campaign. The dividing lines of the election campaign in Porsanger in autumn 2023 were parties that wanted growth and development and parties that wanted the opposite through protecting the areas. The relationship ended 12–7 for growth and development.”
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Similar to the government
Sofie Marhaug believes that the FRP’s energy policy is more similar to the government’s and the Conservative Party’s energy policy
– FRP is for wind power in Porsanger, even though they say in the party program that they are against wind power. FRP speaks with two tongues in energy policy. On the one hand, they are against electrification and wind power. On the other hand, they promote policies such as electrifying the Wisting field and are in favor of wind power in Porsanger. It is more similar to the government’s and the Conservative Party’s power policy, says Marhaug.
– There is great concern in Finnmark about higher electricity prices and a lack of power to develop business if Melkøya is electrified as the government wants. What are the options if you electrify? Wind power?
– We have been against the electrification of Melkøya all along, in the same way as Frp. Electrification will vacuum up the entire country for power and I don’t think that is possible even if you build lots of nature-destroying wind power plants. The solution the government has come up with is a hole in the head policy, and Rødt and Frp have agreed on that, says Sofie Marhaug.
– The alternative is to force Equinor to cut emissions through various solutions for carbon capture and storage. Or that they have to pay higher CO₂ tax. We cannot push the bill for all climate measures onto everyone else. That is what you do with the decision to electrify Melkøya, she says.
Bengt Rune Strifeldt says that the FRP says no to wind power until the local democracy does not want it.
– We should not sit in Oslo and control in detail what the municipalities should do. FRP does not agree to wind power in Porsanger. Again, Red has misunderstood. FRP has agreed to investigate the consequences, says Strifeldt.
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