France to double state support to increase use of electricity as energy source

France will spend up to 10 billion euros ($11.72 billion) annually through to 2030 to help the country switch to using electricity instead of oil and gas and their derivative fuels, marking a doubling of current state support, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Friday.



The measures, which include boosting the use of electric vehicles through to modernising heating in homes, are meant to help wean the country off imported energy to avoid future disruptions like that caused by the current war in Iran, which has paralysed seaborne oil and gas cargoes transiting the Strait

of Hormuz and destroyed energy infrastructure in the Middle East.



"Today 60 percent of our energy consumption comes from these imported fossil fuels, though our domestically produced nuclear power is three times

cheaper," Lecornu said in a televised address.



"As long as we depend on oil and gas, we will continue to pay the price of other people's wars, which unfortunately will continue and will impoverish us," he added.