Masters of the universe

If politicians can see into the future, isn't it right to give them all the money they need?

Photo by Florian Kurrasch on Unsplash

We are living in an era where politicians are so convinced of their own powers of premonition that they think they can bend the laws of nature to fit their vision of the future.

Throw enough money at a problem, and you can defy basic physics, turn wind into hydrogen, or water into wine.

“My favourite steel company,” gushed federal climate minister Robert Habeck during a recent visit to GMH, a steel smelter near Osnabrück that has chosen the staggeringly expensive path of using electricity instead of coal to heat its furnaces.

With its smelters guzzling more electricity than the entire city of Osnabrück, GMH is reliant on the state to pick up part of its energy tab. On Habeck's visit the firm warned that, if it didn't get more public money soon, its future was at risk.

Habeck is only too happy to oblige. For him, the viability of a technology isn't a question of science but one of subsidies. Fear not, the Green politician assures, for that which is expe…