Becoming dependent on others for a necessity is always a risky course:
Switzerland is considering jailing anyone who heats their rooms above 19C for up to three years if the country is forced to ration gas due to the Ukraine war.
The country could also give fines to those who violate the proposed new regulations.
Speaking to Blick, Markus Sporndli, who is a spokesman for the Federal Department of Finance, explained that the rate for fines on a daily basis could start at 30 Swiss Francs (£26).
He added that the maximum fine could be up to 3,000 Swiss Francs (£2,667).
And companies who deliberately go over their gas quotas could face punishment.
Additionally, according to the potential measures, temperatures in gas-heated buildings can be no more than 19C (66.2F), with water heated up to 60C (140F).
As my Gentle Readers are surely aware, in response to European war sanctions against Russia, Russia has shut off the Nord Stream gas pipeline that fuels much of Europe. It’s about to get chilly over there. Not that 66 degrees Fahrenheit is unbearable, mind you, but I have a feeling that the Old World is at the start of a slow devolution.
How do those windmills and solar panels strike you these days, my distant cousins? Of course, we in the U.S. can’t smirk too gleefully; California, home to an eighth of our population, is in the same bag. Then there’s the little matter of our electronics, our rechargeable batteries, and our non-recreational drugs, a frightening percentage of which are made in Red China. As I need some of those drugs to stay on the sunny side of the sod, I’m a little more frightened than most. But I digress.
