Vratislav Ludvík

Prague City Hall took a first step towards buying out its fellow shareholder in the Czech capital’s gas distribution company, German power giant E.ON, by ordering a valuation of Pražská Plynárenská. But is the move such a good idea when the council is seeking to curb its deficit? Vratislav Ludvík puts the case for the city to make a wholehearted dash for the gas distribution business.

Leaks about Russian state gas company Gazprom investing in RWE could well center on the German energy giant’s Czech infrastructure assets, namely its gas pipeline company Net4Gas. Gazprom has tried before to get its hands on the strategic Czech pipeline — and a taking a direct stake in RWE appears to be out of the question — but the Russian giant might get further this time, given RWE’s financial problems.

Many Czechs surmise that biomass and other non-traditional energy sources are the result of the pressure on the part of the environmentally minded part of political representations, bewitched by a sort of European “green madness,” arguing about the color of our planet. What is it then that now makes the world’s most-advanced countries invest large amounts of money in research into new technologies (including other types of “non-traditional energy generation”)?