The Wall Street Journal-20080122-Politics - Economics- In Brief
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Politics & Economics: In Brief
Russia Advances Energy Strategy
With Bulgarian Pipeline Pact
Bulgarian and Russian officials signed a deal to build a natural-gas pipeline that would undercut a rival project backed by the U.S. and European Union and strengthen the Kremlin's dominance over EU energy supplies. The agreement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin pushed to secure Bulgaria's participation in the proposed South Stream pipeline that would cross from Russia under the Black Sea to Bulgaria and then branch off for delivery in Europe.
-- Associated Press
Iran's Ahmadinejad Is Ordered
To Send Natural Gas to Villages
Iran's supreme leader reversed a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and ordered him to implement a law supplying natural gas to villages, amid dissatisfaction with the president's performance. The move by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a rebuke to the hard-line president, whose popularity has fallen amid rising food prices and deaths due to gas cuts amid a harsh winter. Ayatollah Khamenei ordered the president to implement a law spending $1 billion from the Currency Reserve Fund to supply gas to villages.
-- Associated Press
Europe's Energy Bills Soar
Home-energy bills across Europe are soaring this winter, eating into household budgets and frustrating efforts by central banks to keep inflation in check. On Friday, 17 million U.K. customers of Centrica PLC-owned British Gas learned they would be paying 15% more for natural gas. A few days earlier, 5.5 million U.K. customers of EDF Energy, a unit of Electricité de France SA, were told their bills would increase 7.9% for electricity and 12.9% for natural gas.
