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The German Review

Green dream land

Jörg Luyken's avatar
Jörg Luyken
May 13, 2023
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Dear Reader,

How to explain the fact that Germany’s ‘super minister’ for the economy and climate insists on the one hand that renewable energy is the cheapest around while at the same time feeling the need to subsidise Germany industry so that they can afford their electricity bills?

Germany now produces half of its power with renewables but prices remain so outrageously high that climate minister Robert Habeck has decided that a €30 billion annual subsidy is the only way to stop aluminium smelts and other heavy industry from moving abroad.

In Habeck’s jargon, the huge subsidy - which will cap industry electricity prices at 6 cents per kilowatt/hour - is a “bridging price” that will transport German industry into the land of milk and honey that awaits in a fully green future.

"We want to avoid permanent subsidies. So we're proposing a bridge that will lead to a future with low renewable electricity prices and no subsidies," Habeck proclaimed.

But, stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

Ge…

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