“Achieving energy efficiency does not justify fixed state price on energy”

While the energy transition is one of most important political projects in Germany, the end does not justify the means, Martin Wanninger writes in the Passauer Neue Presse. Greatest efforts are called for to achieve greater energy efficiency, but not great sins, he adds. The introduction of a "flexible" tax would be one such sin – “and a violation of the basic tenets of Germany’s economic policy.” Raising taxes when oil prices fall and lowering them when oil rises, which the government is apparently considering in its new Green Paper on efficiency, is nothing more than a fixed state price on energy, Wanninger argues.

For more details, read yesterday's CLEW article Lagging efficiency to get top priority in Germany’s Energiewende.