Grybauskaite positive on energy

VILNIUS - On June 11, Lithuania’s President Dalia Grybauskaite said in her annual report that only recently has Lithuania started to reason on its own in energy matters; in addition, there is still a lack of independent and competent specialists available for decision-making.

But even with limited capabilities, Lithuania has secured diverse energy sources. “We have joined Europe’s largest power exchange Nord Pool Spot; we have launched the biofuel exchange; we are building the NordBalt and LitPol Link electricity interconnections; we are unbundling gas supply and transmission; we are introducing radical reforms in the gas sector; we have completed the ninth power block in Elektrenai; and we have started using local fuel more extensively,” said the president during her State of the Nation Address.

Grybauskaite pointed out that it was important to hold out for at least two more years, and then it would be possible to breathe more freely since the power links with Sweden would be completed in 2015, and the LNG terminal would start operating in Klaipeda.

“It is not that simple. As we continue to be undecided and disagree about the national energy strategy - already the seventh - secret visits by Rosatom, undisclosed Gazprom memorandums and documentaries by pseudo greens are making decisions for us,” said the president.

According to Grybauskaite, because of uncertainty in the energy field, bigger energy-intensive foreign investments circumvent Lithuania. “Indecisiveness and delayed decisions may cost us international trust. Stuck in the calculation of economic costs and prices, politicians risk to deviate from the road of energy security to a nationally disastrous path of one-day profits. It meansthat energy self-dependence and freedom can become an object of exchange,” said President Grybauskaite.