Two years ago, I wrote that the leaders of the national energy industry do not fear God, knowing that they do not care about us, the citizens.

It is clear that there is a gap between citizens and the state. The division can be seen in every sphere of society. From broken boxes on the sidewalk to evasion – refusal to pay taxes and fees to the state. There is reciprocity. We know that the state mocks the funds that are collected in the budget due to unreasonable salaries and pensions for “country specialists”, that in order to get votes they subsidize the disabled, that interest groups steal from the budget creatively. the use of ways to leak money into private budgets. The following sayings were introduced: “who will run away” – “everyone for himself” – “I see my well-being faster than someone else’s.”

The Constitution of the country provides for various rights of citizens, but we would like to refer to the right to life, physical and mental integrity (Article 22) and the right to health care (Article 34), rights that are related to another fundamental right: the right to water and energy, leaving others to discuss the problems of the health care system, the education system or the legal system.

How clear is it that we have a right to energy?

It is not quite so! Even water is not everywhere in Romania. I think that the future Constitution should provide for the right to energy and water, because without energy there is nothing. We are going back to the primeval age. Can you imagine how we could live without electricity, heat or transport?

We have experienced blackouts, “power failures” several times, and we are at risk of such a national or regional disaster, which means that in addition to economic losses, we will also have human losses. Almost half of the population lives in large or medium-sized urban agglomerations. What would a city be like without electricity for a week? First, there will be no water, which will cause a terrible pandemic. Let’s think about the lack of water in the bathrooms before we get thirsty. We do not discuss the elevator, television, Internet or any means of communication or transportation. Let’s look at our Ukrainian neighbors: they left their country, they left their region where they were, and because of the lack of energy, because Russian criminals destroyed the infrastructures of production and transportation of electricity and thermal energy.

Breaking the social contract?

There is usually a social contract between the state and the citizen: the citizen receives money for education in his youth and in retirement for social or medical services, and during his active period he must work for the state to function through fees and taxes. collects The state should organize an education system, a health care system, a system of improving labor qualifications, in other words, a system through which we contribute to the welfare of society. The state stands above society, which it must protect, organize, establish rules of conduct, as well as fines and rewards for the conduct of each part of this social contract.

Minoush Shaffiq asks: “What do we owe each other?” in his book, trying to explain what the social contract is and how we can live better if there is respect. The book I am talking about also deals with the causes that have led to the breaking of the social contract in recent times. I recommend you!

The state should actually cover the lower needs (and facilitate the realization of the higher ones) described by Maslow: the immediate needs of life, the needs of safety, belonging, esteem and self-realization. Ms. Shaffick does not believe that there is also the possibility of not having the energy to deal only with education, social services, health services and working conditions.

Air, water, energy – conditions of life

Access to water and access to energy, to which we can also add access to clean air, are at the base of Maslow’s pyramid, and we understand that they must be provided. This does not always happen! Energy is a measure of civilization. Without it, we would surely return to the primitive era. Friend Dumitru Chisăliță with his Intellectual Energy Association is trying to give energy to those who never had it. I have seen with my own eyes houses without “electricity”, and the project of the association “Energy for Life” provided them with photovoltaic panels and batteries that allow children to study, have access to the Internet, use a computer. In Romania, there are tens of thousands of households without electricity, but we are proud of our membership in NATO and the European Union. The state has not fulfilled its social contract.

The right to energy should include clear conditions: Unconditional access, Uninterrupted supply, The quality of energy should be constant, and The price of energy should be acceptable for every citizen.

Today, access depends on distributors, supply is not continuous due to lack of production capacity or lack of modernization of networks, there is not always a standardized frequency or voltage and prices, what else can be said?

Who is the state? (I mean, who do we hold responsible?)

There are many relations between the state and society. “God behind the counter” is the most common. He is guilty: he is our employee and does not understand this. In fact, any employee, from small (Swiss) to large (director of a state institution, mayor, …) is our employee. Parliament is our employee. Everyone who works in the Government and the President are our employees.

Those at the top are the most visible and talked about the most. Most of them, with a simple Google search, we find various legitimacy problems. From resumes that don’t recommend them for anything, to thick resumes that we detect as fake. Ph.D.s upon Ph.D.s, and quite a few from “national security,” as if this pseudo-discipline is some kind of complex science that all the “good” people research in order to show off their Ph.D.

Let’s look at the resumes of heads of ministries or those who manage national energy companies. Everyone has at least attended a National Defense College, if not “earned” a Ph.D. (By the way: doesn’t anyone look at the attendance and whether the graduation papers were plagiarized by the graduates in love who lead us today?) How can we trust these people, in whose hands our destinies are?

But can we hold them accountable? No! And they know it! Through “them”, the state believes that they do not owe us anything, moreover, “they” exist because someone put them in order to achieve some goals. I do not agree with the “parallel state”, a colorful concept adopted by TV patriots, who in turn are controlled by other more or less Romanian interest groups. However, it is clear that “someone” will win and we will lose. The state “failed”, as defined by a contemporary classic. The state is also captured. We don’t really know who is behind the smoke screen. We don’t really have anyone to answer to, and our only “revenge” is every four years when we put a stigma on the party, unaware that the same “someone” will actually win. (At least this is how the history of the authorities in Romania looks in recent years.)

I remember Nene at the top raising the issue that we should give up a large number of PNRR just to fulfill the wishes of a small caste of ‘specials’.

The breaking of the social contract occurred because of the resulting dependence: the sinecure was slipped into a position he could never occupy. It will do whatever “someone” who planted it asks of it. An uneducated citizen depends on the mayor, the innkeeper, or the owner of the village store, who gives him “a notebook” and stamps what is required of him once every four years. A compliant employee in any government agency, local or central, will do everything possible to keep the boss in his position so that he does not lose his position. It got to the point that an inappropriate institution approved the natural right of a citizen, creating an imposed dependence. (The other day, a friend told how ANAF should agree on the possibility of submitting documents to SPV ANAF)

The termination of the social contract also occurred due to differences between the rights of “special” and “normal”. How is it possible that a “normal” person who worked for 35 years has a pension 10 times less than a “special” person who also worked in a monetary position through some important government institution? Let’s walk down any forgotten street of a remote village and we will see that the resident there barely has time to pay for “electricity”, that he is heated with firewood from no one knows where – that he has no money for firewood, that he has a gas pipe in front of the house and does not have money to install a stove, because paying for gas is not a problem.

What if energy became a right?

Then everything becomes more difficult for the state, because it can no longer use all kinds of tricks to increase its budget and spend it on phantasmagoria (that is, on thieves) or on special salaries and pensions.

Can the state be held responsible for the fact that in 2026 we will not have power generation capacity? Can the state be held responsible for the fact that the prices we pay for electricity are several times higher than the cost of production? Can the state be blamed for the lack of thermal energy?

The other day I discussed the question of why many Bucharest residents disconnect from SACET. Many don’t go out of business to install their individual power plants, they go out of business because they don’t have the money to pay for their maintenance. In the block where I live, there is a person who also had his lights cut off because he didn’t have the money to pay. Usually, the state company Hidroelectrica sells energy for 0.26 lei/kW. The production price is about 0.1 lei/kW. This is doing us a favor because others (also from the state) sell us 1.3 lei/kW as it is a limited price. Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro