Italian Environment Minister: Gas Price Cap Should Be Extended

The European gas price cap expires in December. This measure was passed in February 2023 to establish a maximum price cap for natural gas and is aimed at protecting consumers from sudden increases in gas prices, while at the same time avoiding excessive price gouging by energy companies.

“Tomorrow I’m going to Luxembourg for a meeting of the EU Environment Council. The cap on gas prices expires in December, I will ask to extend it for a year,” explained Italian Minister of Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto-Fratin, as reported by the Italian news agency ANSA. “Extending the price cap by one year means there is a sword of Damocles of suspending quotes if anyone exaggerates profit and speculations. And this is a risk that always exists in the global market.”

The minister then went back to the Italian debate on the possibility of a return to nuclear power, clarifying that the possible future of nuclear power to achieve decarbonization goals will most likely be entrusted to private individuals.

“I am convinced that it will not be the state that will have to build a nuclear power plant, but a consortium of companies, which in ten years, in case of the appearance of small modular 350-megawatt capacity reactors, will ask to build such a power plant, with such production, that will give them certain safety guarantees. And it will be the state that will have to check the availability of security guarantees,” Pichetto-Fratin concluded.