Final Word from Tuesday, May 24, 2022
The Fiala government is working on the details of a special energy tariff that is supposed to provide economic relief to households and also encourage energy conservation. The problem with this concept is that a lower rate for a certain amount of energy consumed by a household could actually give people less incentive to conserve. If today's sky-high energy rates aren't already enough to get people to change their habits, why should a two-tier pricing system do the trick? It's true that the media hype surrounding the launch of the new program could have an initial positive impact on habits, but not permanently. Unless of course the full subsidized rate only applied if a household didn't exceed a certain limit. The more you went beyond what a "responsible" household was supposed to consume, the smaller the discount for the subsidized part. This would be devilishly difficult to implement, and people would complain loudly, but they would also have a true reason to cut back on energy use. [ Czech Republic Petr Zbyněk Stanjura Jozef Síkela ]
Glossary of difficult words
to conserve - to prevent the wasteful overuse of (a resource);
relief - financial or practical assistance given to those in special need or difficulty;
sky-high - at or to a very high level; very great;
to do the trick - to achieve the desired result;
hype - extravagant or intensive publicity or promotion;
to cut back - to reduce the amount or quantity of something.