On Wednesday July 20, the government called on the French to save energy: unplug the sockets, lower the air conditioning, cut off the wifi, turn off the lights and electrical appliances… “An effort” on their consumption, through “small gestures” sold as a solution to the energy crisis, and at the same time to that of purchasing power. But this strategy, accompanied by a system of rewards worthy of the “carrot”, increasingly infantilizes consumers, raises fears of unnecessary surveillance, and increases the pressure.
A system of rewards… and punishments?
To encourage consumers to implement these “small gestures”, a reward system has been suggested by several energy specialists. The idea is simple: use the Linky meter to modulate and monitor consumption, then vary the bill in the event of good (or bad?) energy behavior. For this, the consumer will have a “erase box”which will allow it to automatically mute certain devices “based on peaks reported by the provider”, as reported by TF1. The problem is that the Enedis company also has the possibility of doing it itself… remotely. As the Internet user explained last January, the supplier “has the possibility of cutting off the electricity distribution of a subscriber remotely”et “can also change the power of your meter remotely in less than 24 hours”. So, if nothing yet says that society will lend itself to this game – for these reasons, the rewards rarely come without punishments, what is more in a society where infantilization reigns.
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It is precisely this kind of “surveillance” and study of household consumption practices that opponents of the Linky meter have always wanted to avoid. But today, more than 80% of French people have them.
“Best practices” neither effective nor fair
But the worst part of all this is that these “good practices” don’t even seem relevant. According to Jean-François Julliard, Managing Director of Greenpeace France, it is on the contrary “hypocritical, unfair and not necessarily effective”. He adds that “it is not by cutting off our wifi or by limiting the air conditioning for those who have it, that we will solve the problems of energy sovereignty and the climate crisis in France”. Otherwise, “it is to place this responsibility solely on the French”he insists before questioning: “What is the government doing on its side? Nothing or not enough.” According to him, it is measures to control the energy expenditure of large companies as well as energy responsibility policies that are necessary.
An opinion that some Internet users seem to share, making fun of the “Do as I say, not as I do” of the government :
Macron and Darmanin used two Falcons to travel to Gironde…
And that requires the French to show restraint in their energy consumption.
???????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/Vr6jUWTux9— Verlaine (@__Verlaine__) July 21, 2022
For its part, the executive highlighted “security constraints”.