“I’m not happy either”
Industrial electricity price impasse annoys Habeck
October 31, 2023, 11:10 a.m
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Months ago, Economics Minister Habeck proposed a state-subsidized industrial electricity price. The billion-dollar project is controversial in the traffic lights. The fact that there is still no decision doesn’t just bother him.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck is urging a quick decision within the federal government on a state-subsidized, cheaper industrial electricity price. The Green politician said at an industrial conference in Berlin that the deadlock was bad for companies: “I’m not happy with it either.” Perhaps the discussions on the 2024 federal budget, which are now entering the home stretch, would provide some clarity. “But I can’t promise that either.” Habeck once again put the chances of there being an industrial electricity price at 50:50.
In his speech, he once again insisted on the introduction of industrial electricity prices. “We have to make the alternative clear to ourselves,” said Habeck. That would be “the loss of industries.” If companies with high energy consumption were to migrate, the industry would lose “what constitutes the value chain”, namely production from the “basic product to the end product”.
The second chairman of the IG Metall union, Jürgen Kerner, criticized the fact that electricity prices were high compared to international standards and that the federal government had been conducting a public debate about a “bridge electricity price” for months with no result in sight. A decision is overdue. “We are already noticing that production in the energy-intensive industry is being relocated and stopped,” said Kerner.
FDP is against it, Chancellor Scholz is skeptical
The President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Siegfried Russwurm, said of the industrial strategy recently presented by Habeck: “Paper is patient, companies need concrete action.” For example, the government must say what exactly a competitive energy system of the future will look like. Russwurm also spoke out in favor of reducing the electricity tax. In a further step, you then have to look very closely at what acute help is still needed in limited periods of time so that value chains are not broken.
Months ago, Habeck proposed a government-subsidized, reduced industrial “bridge electricity price” that would cost billions. However, this is controversial within the federal government. The FDP rejects the plans, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so far expressed skepticism about them.