coal and nuclear power
Kretschmann open to extending the term
03/07/2022, 7:16 p.m
After Federal Economics Minister Habeck and Bavaria’s Prime Minister Söder, his counterpart in Baden-Württemberg, Kretschmann, is now also talking about possible extensions to the lifespan of forms of energy that are actually sealed. Nor is it a consensus of open-mindedness.
In view of the looming energy crisis, Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann is open to extending the service life of coal and nuclear power plants. He sees it like Economics Minister Robert Habeck, said the Green politician in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “There shouldn’t be any bans on thinking.” Habeck had considered running coal-fired power plants longer than planned. There are similar considerations for nuclear power plants, all of which should actually be taken off the grid by the end of 2022. “We now have to find short-term solutions,” said Kretschmann, in whose state the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant is currently still in operation.
Previously, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder had openly shown that he would use nuclear energy again for a limited period of time. “If you want to make yourself more independent and still don’t want to completely give up on climate protection, then nuclear energy is an option,” said the CSU politician. Specifically, Söder considers an extension of the service life of the Isar 2 nuclear power plant in Essenbach in Lower Bavaria to be possible. This should actually also be switched off at the end of the year.
Kretschmann emphasized that in the medium term there is no way around “continuing to push the expansion of renewable energies in order to make ourselves independent of fossil fuels”. According to Kretschmann, the fact that the expansion of wind power is sluggish is also due to the wrong rules: “We are completely overbureaucratized.” He wants to “at least halve” the approval times of currently seven years. At the same time, he warns that the conversion of the economy to more climate protection will not remain without consequences for the citizens: “It can’t be done without unreasonable demands. Out of the question.” The task of politics is to avoid “social upheavals” that arise from this.