Green-led state to benefit from refunds for nuclear companies

The German Federal Constitutional Court's decision to declare the country’s nuclear fuel tax law invalid has outraged many Green politicians, but could turn out to be beneficial for some of their fellow party members, Daniel Wetzel writes in the weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag. Following the ruling, the government will have to refund about seven billion euros to the nuclear companies, leading the Green party’s nuclear policy spokesperson Sylvia Kotting-Uhl to conclude that the utilities would have to be charged in some other way, Wetzel writes. But influential Green and Baden-Wuerttemberg state premier Winfried Kretschmann might object to that, Wetzel argues. His state holds 50 percent of utility EnBW, which likely will bring several hundreds of millions of euros into the state’s treasury after the ruling.

For background, see the CLEW factsheet Securing utility payment for the nuclear clean-up.