Gas crisis, Germany rekindles coal and does not turn off nuclear power
“This model has failed and they will never come back. “In recent days, the German Minister for Economy and Climate, Robert Habecktook stock of the internal energy issue and the new one “Gasumlage”the supplement in the gas bill that the Germans will present from this autumn: 2,419 net euro cents more per kilowatt hour. In practice, a family of four that consumes 20,000 kilowatt hours per year will now face an increase of around 480 euros per year. Germany also asked the EU Commission to be able to exempt the gas surcharge from VAT.
A tax that will allow companies to download the high gas purchase costs. A “bitter medicine”, the minister defined it, but necessary in order not to make German energy companies go bankrupt and to guarantee supplies in Germany. The surcharge, it was said at the press conference, also serves to get out of a situation in which Germany depended on cheap Russian gas and, therefore, by President Vladimir Putin “who does not respect international law and for whom liberal democracy and its values are declared enemies”. “The alternative to the gas surcharge was not not to apply it, but it would have been the collapse of the German energy market and therefore also of large parts of the European energy market “, said Habeck.
In the meantime, Germany has also decided to cope with the Russian gas cut through Nord Stream 1 restarting three lignite plants which will add to the 20 gigawatts of coal already in operation. And, according to what the Wall Street newspaper which mentions “three senior government officials”, it seems that Berlin is preparing to do backtrack on denuclearization with an extension, albeit temporary, of the life of the three nuclear power plants astill in operation. According to the stability plans – at the push of the Greens of Habeck himself – an end of 2022 would have passed. And according to some polls, three quarters of Germans today cheer to prolong their life.