Fracking's chances dwindle / 'CO2 floor would fail in Germany'
Handelsblatt
“Dwindling chances for fracking”
The proposed fracking law has been delayed and might not be adopted in the current legislative period, writes Klaus Stratmann in Handelsblatt. Energy minister Sigmar Gabriel's Social Democrats (SPD) insist parliament should vote on recommendations for specific trial drills, and there is no compromise in sight, writes Stratmann. The environment ministry’s law proposal would allow fracking under very strict preconditions.
Read a CLEW article on last year’s fracking law proposal here.
Montel
“French CO2 floor would fail in Germany”
French proposals to set a domestic price corridor for carbon allowances would fail in Germany, which will have to find other tools to tackle emissions, a senior German environment agency official told Montel. “If you create a CO2 price floor or tax, lignite would barely be affected – rather, hard coal would be replaced. The opposite would be preferable from a climate perspective,” Uwe Leprich, the new head of energy and climate at Germany’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA), which is responsible for overseeing the country’s participation in the European carbon market, told Montel in an interview.
Read the article in English here.
Süddeutsche Zeitung
“Left behind”
With its subsidies for e-cars, the German government forecast a mobility revolution, and issued a desperate wake-up call to the domestic car industry, writes Markus Balser in a commentary for Süddeutsche Zeitung. The government fears thousands of jobs in the sector are at risk if carmakers don’t take up the challenge of e-mobility in earnest. “Not only fossil engines, but also the concept of the private car is about to be replaced,” writes Balser. In other sectors, many German companies are leaders in the global movement to decarbonise, but carmakers apply the brakes in transport. The subsidies are only a symbolic act, and what’s really needed is a profound cultural change at the companies, writes Balser.
Read a CLEW dossier on the Energiewende in transportation here.
dpa-AFX/Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Only one in seven ponders purchase of e-car”
High costs, limited range and a lack of charging stations remain the most important reasons for consumers not to purchase an electric car, despite last week’s decision to support subsidies, according to a survey by pollster GfK, reports news agency dpa-AFX. “Only one in seven people might consider an e-car when they next buy a car,” according to the article. According to GfK, a charging system at people’s homes and a fast-charging infrastructure are the most important preconditions for e-mobility’s success.
Read the article in German here.
VDI nachrichten
“Energiewende in danger“
The planned reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), with a switch from guaranteed feed-in tariffs to auctions, is threatening the success of the Energiewende, said Claudia Kemfert of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) in an interview with VDI nachrichten. There would be less planning security for investors and the deployment corridors for new renewable capacity would be missed if companies won the auctions but then delayed the start of construction. “Unfortunately, there is a high risk that the 'Energiewende' in Germany will be slowed down,” she said. Kemfert also criticised the government’s plans to introduce exceptions for small citizen’s energy projects as a “helpless attempt to counteract the disadvantage for small players”. “The diversity of actors was the guarantee for success of the energy transition up until now. Citizen’s energy cooperatives are the big losers of this reform,” said Kemfert.
Read the interview in German here.
Find a CLEW factsheet on the EEG reform 2016 here.
Hamburger Abendblatt
“Vattenfall: We need to reduce staff”
Vattenfall’s president and CEO Magnus Hall warned of job cuts in an interview with Hamburger Abendblatt. “The energy business is under pressure from the Energiewende. If we don’t keep up and work as efficiently as possible, neither Vattenfall nor any other energy company will be able to secure its existence for the next 30 or 50 years,” said Hall.
Read the interview in German here.
BILD
“Energy madness; why we pay more and more for electricity that we don’t use”
Consumers must pay for more and more power that they can’t use because of the “chaos with the Energiewende”, according to mass tabloid BILD. Many wind turbines increasingly have to be turned off because the expansion of the grid cannot keep track with the growth of renewables. The renewable power station operators receive compensation for these hours and the consumers pay in the end, writes BILD.
Read the article in German here.
Handelsblatt
“Nuclear waste; a heavy load”
“The search for a final repository was irresponsibly put into cold storage” over the past decades, writes Silke Kersting in an opinion piece in Handelsblatt. According to Kersting, including the public in the discussion is now an essential step to work through inevitable controversies. The parliamentary commission for establishing the exploration framework for a final repository is expected to release its final report at the end of June.
