November 15, 2007 (LPAC)--Wulf Bernotat, head of Germany's major energy producer, E.On, said, in a November 14 statement, that the European Union bureaucrats headquartered in Brussels are a bigger threat to Europe's energy market than Gazprom, the Russian group.

What could be more dangerous to power generation than the big bad Russian Gazprom? Electricity deregulation, Bernotat said. Given what deregulation has done in the United States, where states like California have seen doubling and tripling of electricity prices since 2001, only suicidal maniac would believe in it.

Bernotat also said the European Commission's proposal to break up Europe's electricity behemoths, separating, and thus deregulating, transport and distribution from power generation, as was done in 17 U.S. states, is misguided, and would weaken Europe's electricity sector.

Indeed, experience in some EU countries also makes Bernotat's point: In the Netherlands, authorities regret they ever broke up the system in the first place; in Britain, a recent survey shows that the deregulation of the power market has led to higher, rather than lower, electricity prices.

Bernotat's attack on energy deregulation is covered prominently on the Financial Crimes website today.