The most depressing part, especially in the way it was reported in the French media, is to see EELV (Greens!) senators (unwittingly?) propagate the message that, of course, the price of electricity will double by the end of the decade, because of the "heavy investments in renewable energy", feed-in tariffs and other subsidies. Talk about shooting oneself in the foot...

If you wanted to ingrain the perception that "renewable energies = taxes and subsidies" even deeper in the French public, you couldn't have done any better. This is the not so subtle message that has been pushed by conventional wisdom and corporate media; many ordinary folks now believe that solar or wind are at best, a speculative bubble or even a scam to subsidize their hard won tax euros to politically connected lobbies.

Of course a large part of that perception is 180 degrees from the reality, but never mind, this is that very perception that's going to shape the upcoming political debates in the near future (just like: we must reduce state spending to reduce state debt level).

Many people's reaction to these news are along the lines: forget about solar and wind mills (un-serious), what we need is more nuclear power plants (serious).