Increasing oil and gas prices: What must the state do?

The rapidly climbing oil and gas prices have led to calls for political measures. Should the state intervene? In opinion of Hubertus Barth, Institute of the German Economy, Cologne, the state should respond by promoting competition and avoiding additional burdens for consumers and the economy. In particular, no further price regulations should be introduced because this would ultimately be a departure from liberalisation on these markets. There are also commercial and economic reasons for not carrying out specific measures for increasing energy efficiency, which may be reasonable in climate-policy terms because a one-sided emphasis on energy saving would automatically result in distortions and inefficiencies in other areas. However, energy efficiency measures that are carried out voluntarily by enterprises and private households are economically sensible. For Patrick Matschoss, Christian Hey and Martin Faulstich, Council of Environmental Experts (SRU), Berlin, direct subsidies for energy prices, for example by means of social pricing or by national supply-side measures such as the expansion of biofuels, would no longer solve the problem in the European and global energy markets. Instead, the markets' ability to adapt to the new scarcity signals should be supported and in individual cases also be sped up by supporting policy measures. This would lead to a clear lowering of energy consumption via efficiency, which is appropriate both in terms of energy supply security and climate protection.