“The energy bill has become unaffordable at the moment, it is now three times higher than normal. And we are now entering winter. We are diving straight into the energy crisis,” said the wealthy co-founder of the Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij on Saturday at broadcaster WNL.
In the near future, investor Schoen will buy spots and advertisements from broadcasters ‘out of pocket’ to turn the tide of sky-high consumer bills, he announced.
Within a few weeks, he hopes for half a million supporters for an advisory corrective referendum, both in the municipality of Groningen and for the whole of the Netherlands. He hopes this will persuade politicians to pump up more gas. “They can ignore that, but then we have made a fist,” said Schoen about his strategy.
‘Scandalous’
The Groningen gas field is being phased out and will close next year. Schoen wants the field to remain open to a limited extent to pump up about 10 billion cubic meters of gas. He relies on energy experts who argue that limited gas extraction is feasible, provided that people from Groningen are generously compensated for damage caused by earthquakes.
“It is scandalous how the people of Groningen have been treated,” he says about the late and slow compensation of all damages by the government in recent years. The residents of the gas extraction area could receive €100,000 per household from the new revenue from Groningen gas, which is at a record price at the current price of around €300 per megawatt hour and would generate €30 billion on the world market.
“They can still ignore it, but then we have made a fist”
According to his calculation, with the rest of the proceeds, about €20 billion, €2800 in energy subsidies for Dutch families would be possible. This would compensate for a large part of the enormous price increase, says the entrepreneur and panel member in the Dutch version of the television program Dragons’ Den.
Injury
Administrators in Groningen are against new extraction because of the earthquake damage. The State Supervision of Mines calls more gas extraction ‘unsafe’. It could lead to death. Deputy René Paas is also a strong opponent. According to the Mining Council, limited gas production is inevitable in an energy crisis if Russia no longer sends any gas to Europe.
Schoen, who also owns two energy companies in Belgium and France: “In the fourteen years that I have been working with the Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij, the price of gas has risen from €15 to €22 to now €330. That is unprecedented. What people now have to pay is unsustainable for them.”
In 2018, Schoen sold the Nederlandse Energie Maatschappij to the Nuts Groep, under the brand name Budget Energie. Business magazine Quote estimated his net worth at €175 million in 2021.