Björk in war of words with energy boss

It’s all going down in Iceland this week as Björk and friends take on energy boss Ross Beaty, CEO of Magma Energy, the Canadian company who have been gradually buying up Icelandic geothermal energy company HS Orka.

In a display of incredible corporate arrogance, Beaty yesterday issued a statement offering Björk “a cheeky proposal”, challenging her to “put her money where her mouth is, as I am personally doing” by offering to sell her a 25% stake in HS Orka “at no profit to Magma”. This comes in response to Björk’s demand for an investigation into a soon to be finalised deal which would see the Canadian company own more than 98% of HS Orka.

“Are we going to pay the outvasion Vikings’ Icesave debt with our nature? Isn’t it possible that we can pay our debts more easily if we maintain full authority over our natural resources and profit from them ourselves?” she asked at a press conference on Monday. “Will our grandchildren be happy about how we are reacting now? Will they be satisfied with the agreements and the sale of the natural resources?”

Adding to the controversy is the fact that Magma have created a Swedish ‘shelf company’ to bypass Icelandic law that prohibits countries from outside of the European Economic Area from owning any stake in the country’s natural resources. Björk, naturally, did not respond warmly to Beaty’s offer, issuing the following statement through Icelandic newswire Grapevine:

“dear ross

noticed your message for me

you offering me shares in hs orka shows that you totally miss my point

i feel this company should not be privatized , it should be given back to the people .

therefore i am not interested in shares .

but if i would get the same deal as you , a 70% bulletloan from icelanders to buy usage of their own resources , i might reconsider , who wouldn´t ?

you didn’t really put your money where your mouth is , did you ?

good bye

björk

P.s. I also saw in financial times when you asked me , personally , to pop over to your office and you would lower how long magma´s usage of our resources is going to be . This only reveals how willing you are to cut deals outside law and order”

For more background on these important developments, keep an eye on Grapevine.

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