1. But what accually happened?

In April 2023, I was contacted by a recruitment firm, asking if I was interested in taking on the role of Gas Coordinator at the Swedish Energy Agency. I would then belong to the Energy Preparedness Division, Unit for Secure Energy Supply. The role focused on gas supply security, including fossil natural gas, biogas, and hydrogen. It was an administrative role without staff responsibilities or decision-making authority. Initially, I was hesitant, mainly because I would need to commute to another town, but the hiring manager convinced me e.g. by offering up to four days of remote work per week.

I was awarded the position provided that I managed the security clerance, and as the final part of the recruitment process, I underwent a double security check (by the Energy Agency and the Swedish Security Service, SÄPO). The agency’s review was conducted by an experienced manager. I have been security-cleared in previous roles when working with the army, but I found the process this time to be more thorough.

I was hired due to my qualifications, including my previous role as a biogas and climate expert. I hold a Master’s degree in Energy and Environmental Engineering and have over 20 years of experience in various parts of the energy sector, having led numerous complex energy- and climate-related projects [1]. During the security screening interview, I mentioned my broad climate engagement in my free time, but there were no follow-up questions about what this involvement entailed, and I didn’t consider it relevant to my employment since I separate my work from personal commitments. I wasn’t asked questions, for example, about what types of demonstrations I had attended or planned to attend in my free time, or about my social media posts. Had these questions been asked, it would have been classified as registration of opinion, which is not compatible with the Swedish constitution. However, my engagement was noted as being in line with the Energy Agency’s overall work on the climate transition.

At the time of the security interview (which occurred about five months before my employment was set to begin), I wasn’t particularly involved with the Mothers Rebellion, the group that later became the subject of so much speculation.

My work at the Energy Agency began on October 15, 2023, with a mandatory six-month probation period. I wanted, of course, to contribute to the understanding of the biogas system, as I understood that there was a lack of this at the agency (with virtually no established guiding documents on the subject), but I also hoped to bring a broader perspective, as I had worked extensively with international energy issues and at a strategic level.

The Gas Coordinator before me, Gustav Boethius, contacted me on LinkedIn even before I had posted my new role there, so I understood that he had done research to find my name. He contacted me several times during my time at the agency; primarily, he seemed to feel the need to instruct me on how to do my job. Boethius appears to have had a different type of assignment than I had and was in his previous role very focused on the West-swedish gas network, while I had more of an overall responsibility regarding gas preparedness across the whole of Sweden.

From Boethius, I received detailed advice on what I needed to do and how to manage my work, but he also told me, for instance, that he had contacts up to the Minister for Energy, Business and Industry Ebba Busch, the Minister of Finance Elisabeth Svantesson, and Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oscar Bohlin, and that things could go badly if I didn’t follow his instructions. [2]

He also informed me that very powerful people owned the companies dependent on gas from the West-swedish gas network, and it was essential that I kept a log in the agency’s registration system. “They” would later review my work. My managers were aware of Boethius’s attempts to contact me.

When I started working at the agency, I was unaware of the turbulent history behind Boethius’s departure, but it is described in detail in his book, Ledningen, which I later read. In the book, he describes his previous duties, which naturally interested me. However, I quickly noticed that the conditions for Swedish-produced energy gas are barely mentioned, and, in my opinion, this lack of understanding is why his analysis falls short. However, we are in agreement (along with previous gas administrators before Boethius) that Swedish biogas production must increase.

Boethius frequently emphasizes the critical role of gas for certain essential sectors in Sweden and for meeting the needs of the Swedish defense, and I completely agree with him on this. I also agree that Sweden’s current gas preparedness is unfortunately low, partly due to a historically low prioritization of the sector. Much needs to be done to improve Sweden’s gas security and preparedness, which is what motivated me to take on the role of Gas Coordinator.

When Boethius’s book was published, it was received in a very negative wau by the Energy Agency [4], partly because it disclosed sensitive information (concerning both Sweden’s gas preparedness and personal details about his former colleagues. Even though his former colleagues have fictional names, it’s easy to figure out who is who with some insights).

Just before his departure from the agency, Boethius’s security clearance was revoked by my head of division, his then head of unit. [5]

At the beginning of my employment, I assumed Boethius had no personal issues with me, as I hadn’t been involved during his time at the agency. I would have been happy to discuss gas issues with him. However, my managers were very clear that I should ignore his contact attempts. I followed their instructions, but I realize that this only angered him further.

Just before my 6 months probation period was to transition into a permanent role, Boethius “outed” me as a “climate activist” by sending screenshots from my public Facebook profile to various people at the agency. He insinuated that my involvement in the climate movement meant that I could be a ‘security risk’. He also indicated that a news article was in the works about this “disclosure.”

Despite recurring issues with the previous Gas Coordinator, the agency chose to support his narrative in this situation, which, by the way, is another example of him disrupting the agency’s work. Handling this process has taken up considerable time for the agency, and with the gas preparedness group down by one resource, they have had to lower their ambitions. Additionally, six months of gas preparedness work from one person (me) was essentially thrown in the rubbish.

There is currently no Gas Coordinator at the Energy Agency; the overall responsibility for gas preparedness now rests with my former unit manager. My planned training initiative to enhance knowledge for those working with gas, unfortunately, could not be realized, as my work was interrupted.

Later, we requested the SMS conversations Boethius had with various people at the agency, as they were part of the decision to terminate my employment (and should be considered public documents), but we were informed that all SMS messages had been deleted from all phones.

Over four months later, I did manage to see one of the SMS conversations, which had apparently been registered anyway.

You don’t have to be a mother to get involved or sympathize with the Mothers Rebellion. There is no membership or membership fee. And you don’t have to live climate-wise ‘perfectly’ (because then there wouldn’t be many of us). I happen to know that the Mothers Rebellion have great support at, for example, the Energy Agency. There is a network for government employees for those who are interested. The mothers Rebellion are not connected to any particular political party, but of cource, political decisions are needed for sound climate politics. It is true that the Mothers Rebellion are connected to the larger climate movement Extinction Rebellion, but one of the reasons why the Mothers Rebellion started was to be an alternative for those who wanted to get involved in the transition movement, but were not interested in carrying out actions of peaceful civil disobedience, which has also become such a big discussion in this story.

When my bosses received the SMS from Boethius, they seem to have been afraid of the reprisals that could follow from a ‘climate activist’ getting the job as Gas Coordinator, and immediately announced that my probationary appointment would not be converted into a permanent position. I was told by my unit manager that I would continue to work until my probation ended (a week and a half later) and at that time finish and hand in my work.

The article, with the headline ‘Climate activist employed on a critical position at the Energy Agency’ was published sometime late on Wednesday evening, April 3 in the newspaper Fokus.

The article was written by a former editor-in-chief for the site Bulletin (by many considered to be politically far right), and contained serious insinuations, eg that I would be a threat to Sweden’s security. A short summary of the article can be found in appendix 1. Boethius himself writes about the fact that it was him who initiated the process on his account on platform X. [10]

The ‘disclosure’ was published in a few days without further fact-checking in just over 20 newspapers (largely the same text).

Early morning, the day after the first publication (240404), Peter Wennblad writes in SvD’s editorial that ‘Sweden has an open house for security threats’ [12] and Boethius is quoted again:

‘If the Gas Coordinator is hanging out with people that are interested in infrastructure sabotage, there is an enourmous risk for the safety of the nation as well as for other countries, says the earlier Gas Coordinator Gustav Boethius to Fokus.’

It is also insinuated that I would be disloyal to Swedish interests and in principle completely unreliable. The editorial ends with a call to Carl-Oscar Bohlin, Sweden’s Minister for Civil Defence, to call the agency’s director general to deliver an explanation for what has gone wrong. (The Energy Agency has no reporting obligation to Bohlin, but is organized under the Ministry of Energy, Business and Industry. According to the Swedish constitution, it is forbidden for a minister to meddle in individual personnel matters or directly intervene in the work of authorities. [13])

That Wennblad and Boethius have worked together several times previously appears, for example, on SvD’s website and they have together participated in the right wing think tank Timbro’s meetings [14]. The same morning that Wennblad’s editorial is published, I receive information from my unit manager about what is being written on the platform X about the issue. After that, my head of department suddenly comes to my house with five minutes’ notice and takes my work computer and phone, muttering about ‘Russian infiltration’, leaving me with no way to communicate. I then understand that I have also lost my security clearence. That my security clearance would be removed was only the Energy Agency’s decision (SÄPO was not involved). There was nothing else behind that decision, as far as I know, other than what I describe in this blog.

Bohlin later writes on X:

Then I think someone has promised someone a LNG terminal.