Are the Greens in Germany like the Italian grillini on energy?
Are the Greens in Germany going back on their no to coal-fired nuclear power? The article by Tino Oldani for ItaliaOggi
It didn't take long to understand what the political fabric of the German Greens is, now ruling in Berlin as the second partner of the traffic light coalition, led by Olaf Scholz, along with Social Democrats and Liberals. You know the grillini of our house? Well, they look like their photocopy. As soon as they came to the government, they too took back in an amen all the "no" they had proclaimed during the electoral campaign. In Italy it was like this for the no grillini to the euro, to the Tav, to the Tap pipeline, to the third term, even to vaccines, all of which were eaten in order not to give up a seat and a salary of 15 thousand euros a month. In Germany, the Greens have just begun to do the same, turning back the no to nuclear power and fossil fuels, with the reasoning of politicians who seem to have put their heads right, aware of the real problems, but still remaining turncoats.
Their first no to become yes was on nuclear power. A no that only lasted a couple of days. On December 31, when the EU Commission made public the draft of the green taxonomy, including nuclear and gas among the sustainable energy sources to achieve zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, the leaders of the German Greens immediately rejected, adding that Germany, with them in government, would never, ever approve the text. A bad thing for her compatriot Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, who thus risked being disavowed by her own country.
But within a few hours, here is the turnaround. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, 53, a leading exponent of the Greens, noted that there is little chance that the EU will change the draft of the green taxonomy, as there is not a majority of countries against it in Europe. Indeed, those against it, together with Germany, are three in all: Austria, Spain and Luxembourg. While those in favor of nuclear power and gas are the overwhelming majority, led by France led by Emmanuel Macron, which produces 70% of electricity with nuclear power and has just launched a program of heavy investments in new nuclear power plants, which, he said incidentally, they do not emit carbon dioxide. Thus, after Lemke, the spokesman for the federal government also backtracked, with a zig-zag statement: on the one hand, he confirms that the SPD and Scholz consider nuclear power to be "unsustainable", but then he realizes that it is good not to go beyond the statements of principle. Basically, the end of the German protest, no will on the part of Berlin to step on Macron's toes and create a hiccup for Franco-German friendship.
The hypocritical environmentalism of the German Greens does not end there. Also on December 31st, when the EU draft of the green taxonomy came out, they were the first to reiterate that Germany, on that very day, was closing three nuclear power plants, while the remaining three will be shut down by the end of this year. . All to accelerate the green transition. A boast that, in reality, aims to hide a colossal lie. The mix of energy sources in Germany, up to 31 December, in addition to nuclear (12%), included roughly 41% of renewable energies, 28% of coal and 18% of gas. The green goal of the government is to reach energy demand with 80% of renewables by 2030. Pure illusion. The reason?
With nuclear power out of the way, and given the delay of Nord Stream 2, the old coal-fired power plants are proving to be very useful, the closure of which, at the request of environmentalists, was anticipated from 2039 to 2030, but only in words. Indeed, mining of coal and lignite from German mines not only continues, but last year the extension of the Garzweiler opencast mine, one of the largest in the country, was even authorized. Security reasons, explained Angela Merkel, to ensure sufficient electricity in North Rhine-Westphalia. A special license that the company Rwa, which manages the mine, will continue to use for years to come, with many greetings to the no of the green for coal.
Another no of the Greens destined to become yes concerns Nord Stream 2. The green leader, Annalena Baerbock, now Foreign Minister, in the election campaign has repeatedly sided against the Russian pipeline and against the inclusion of gas in the green taxonomy. The government program of the traffic light coalition, however, does not mention Nord Stream 2, which the SPD and the liberals are in favor of. In the end, even in this case, the German Greens will imitate the grillini. To hide all these turnarounds, in recent days the Minister of the Environment, Lemke, announced a plan to build between 1,000 and 1,500 wind turbines a year throughout Germany, so as to increase the contribution of renewable energy to national needs. He never said that. Suddenly, many opponents of wind energy, including some components of the greens, came out to make this plan impractical.
The most striking case is that of Bavaria, where the regional government, led by Markus Soder, CSU, has passed a law that requires wind towers to respect a considerable distance from the nearest residential buildings: this distance must be equal to ten times l height of the wind blade, measured from the ground to the tip of the propeller. A standard which, by unanimous judgment, makes it almost impossible to install wind turbines in Bavaria. As for the rest of Germany, a strong environmentalist component is opposed to new blades because the existing wind farms would be responsible for killing one hundred thousand birds a year. Another turnaround in sight?
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/verdi-germania-nucleare-carbone/ on Sun, 09 Jan 2022 07:00:37 +0000.