© Loic VENANCE / AFPA notice announcing air-conditioning inside, as the air temperature exceeds 30 degrees Celsius in the centre of Nantes, western France, on July 13, 2022.
Comment: There will be few small and medium businesses that could afford to blithely leave their doors open when energy prices have, in some cases, tripled. The only businesses that would float this logic are the super stores, and it's unlikely the government, that is usually in bed with these businesses, is going to fine them, and, even if they did, the fine would mean little to their profits.
The minister said there were also plans to restrict the use of illuminated signs.
"In the coming days, I will issue two decrees: the first will widen the ban on illuminated advertising, whatever the size of the city, between 1am and 6am", with the exception of airports and stations, Pannier-Runacher told the
Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
Comment: The energy 'crisis' apparently doesn't extend to airport advertising?
"The second will ban shops from having their doors open while the air conditioning and heating are working".
Some cities in France — which like other parts of Europe has been gripped by a heatwave recently — passed municipal by-laws in July, imposing fines for offending air-conditioned shops.
The government now plans to extend this to the whole country, with a fine of up to 750 euros ($766) — but will emphasise the education of shopkeepers in the first instance.
Comment: The government is often to seeking to 'educate' the public these days. In the not so distant past - the old normal - reeducation was often used humorously to refer to draconian government rule.
The totalitarian diktats began in earnest with the contrived coronavirus crisis, and now the government seeks another avenue to exert control over the minutiae of our everyday lives under the guise of the 'energy crisis'; this ominous oversight also serves to acclimatize people into thinking this kind of behaviour from the government is justified.
Notably the British government said itself recently that they hope the soaring cost of energy will 'naturally' cause people to use less. There was no mention on how this means its most vulnerable will be the ones who will be freezing in their houses this winter. And this was apparently just one of their many ingenious solutions to the looming rolling blackouts, that will actually be a direct result of their proxy war on Russia.