This is as backwards as a policy can get. What's stranger, is that's it not coming from socialist SDP, but rather the CDU/FDP coalition - who were supposed to have a more level-headed perspective on the wind/nuclear debacle.
"Should the energy companies not accept our conditions, then the current phase-out plans will not be changed," Pinkwart told SPIEGEL in the issue which hit newsstands on Sunday.
Volker Kauder, CDU floor leader in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, also reiterated demands for the energy companies to forego much of the additional profit that could fall to them. He told the German public television station ARD on Sunday that up to €50 billion could be generated for the promotion of renewable energies.
Both were referring to preliminary plans that would see Germany's energy giants paying billions into an alternative energy fund should reactor lifetimes be extended.
[Der Spiegel] Nuclear Poker Heats Up in Berlin
That's Pinkwart of the free-market FDP calling for successful companies to subsidze their failed competitors. Wow, talk about ideological reversal.
Besides the economic craziness, there's further absurdity in the fact that nuclear and wind are both completely clean energy sources - there is no sane reason for policy to discriminate between them. Yet a coalition document has this incomprehensible statement:
The proposals by the conservatives, still to be finalized, are contained in a working document presented to their new coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats.
The document states that “atomic energy will be required as a bridge technology until affordable, climate-friendly energy sources are reliably available in sufficient quantities.”
[New York Times] Memo Calls for Reversing Law to Phase Out German Nuclear Plants
Atomic energy - a "bridge" to "climate-friendly" power????
For those who expected CDU/FDP to bring rationality to energy policy (or at the very least, not be so pig-ignorant as to classify nuclear power as "not climate-friendly"), this is a sad disillusionment. There are no deep changes: CDU/FDP will shutter Germany's clean energy - they are not even debating the subject of a total phase-out, it is just a question of deadlines. The discussion has been closed: there is no opposition standing.
In case it's not clear, the SDP is exactly in line with the other two on this larceny:
“This is a great shame,” said Hermann Scheer, the Social Democrats’ leading energy expert.
“If this new government is going to prolong the nuclear plants, then they should ensure that energy companies, who will have huge windfalls from such a decision, pay for the waste management, which the state pays, and use the profits for a proper energy strategy.”
No doubts as to what "proper" means.
On a highly relevant tangent, here's Tom Blees' stark picture of the wind/solar subsidies in Germany:
[Brave New Climate] Germany – crunched by the numbers
Update: For a truly frightening read, take a look at this awful anti-nuclear screed - it's the official position of the German government!
[Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety] The myths of the nuclear industry
Wow, that official brochure from the government is unbelievable. They even admit, 4/5 of the way down, that they much prefer coal to nuclear. Given what you say above, it doesn't sound like anyone in the new government will even bother to delete it from the website.
ReplyDeleteHeh, well, these savvy politicians are playing right to the polls. The majority of Germans oppose the phaseout, but the majority of Germans also don't want the country to continue using nuclear energy indefinitely.
ReplyDelete"Renewables" are also still very popular.
It is not unknown for Germans to live in deep denial of bitter truths. This is a country that has led the world in the roll-out of solar power. Have you ever been to Germany? It's cloudy and dark much of the year! What are they thinking?!
It's interesting, however, to watch the Social Democrats' "leading energy expert" give a bald-faced lie.
While Germany's Federal Office for Radiation Protection is responsible for building and running the nuclear "waste" facilities, the various utilities are responsible for setting aside money to fund the disposal. Note that these funds have been raided (i.e., retroactively taxed) by previous German governments, so why should we be surprised that they want to steal the profits from the successful operation of nuclear plants to fund their failed attempts to build a viable "renewable energy" component of their energy mix.
Brain, the poll numbers I've seen (and linked to recently on this blog) show a majority support the phase-out - 63% as it is or faster, an additional 16% for a delayed phase-out, and only 17% for actually cancelling it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=as9F1MHi6CgE
These things fluctuate, and depend on how the poll questions are asked. I had in mind a poll from last year that showed less than half (~45% or so if I remember correctly) wanted to continue using nuclear, and less than half (~45% again) supported the phase out. I don't remember what other responses were available.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the numbers vary from year to year and poll to poll, I think that it's safe to say that a majority (roughly 60%) do not want to continue using nuclear power, and less than half (30% to 40%) support the phase out as it currently stands. (I should have said, "do not support the current phase out strategy," rather than "oppose the phase out.")
Humanity succeeds not just by following in the footsteps of those who succeed and going that little bit further, but by not following in the footsteps of the corpses and rundown dregs that litter the wayside.
ReplyDeleteLet Germany phase out nuclear, let them sit by the side of the road and huff russian natural gas and snort lignite coal, watching their dreams of a wind and solar future get crushed by the harsh test of reality.
The plan by the German gov't to use profits from fully depreciated nuclear plants, now saved from oblivion by the election, to subsidizde wind and solar energy technologies was first proposed in 2008. German green groups rejected the 10 year $56 billion plan in September 2008. Full details at the URL via Idaho Samizdat, a blog about nuclear energy.
ReplyDelete