A story of two energy windfalls

As TotalEnergie published its 2022 numbers today, with a USD 20 billion profit (or USD 36 billion if you exclude the USD 15 billion charge linked to leaving Russia), it is a bit harder to find the tax on income paid in France. The company notes it is paying more than USD 30 billion in taxes worldwide, but most of these are paid directly to the producer countries. Meanwhile, Ouest-France says that it will pay only USD 200 million in income tax in France. So 1% of revenue, and maybe 2% of the windfall caused by the war.

In parallel, wind and solar projects in France are making similarly-sized windfalls this year, with an expected EUR 38.9 billion surplus over their expected revenues coming from regulated prices (according to the official estimates by the CRE, the French energy regulator). Except that in that case 100% of that surplus revenue is going back to the government’s coffers.

It’s been said before, but it is worth flagging it again: a number of energy groups have seen massive increases in revenues thanks to last year’s energy crisis and the price spike it caused. Some are making super-sized profits that go to their shareholders. Others are giving the money back to their country. The first kind produce the kind of energy (carbon-spewing) that we know we need to use less of. The second produce the kind of energy we want more of. It boggles the mind to think of how the respective windfalls are allocated.