The episode could be a painful turning point in the career of Robert Habeck, the environmental minister of the economy and vice-chancellor of the German government. Guest on television on Tuesday, September 6, in the very popular program of host Sandra Maischberger, he explained that the explosion in energy prices would not necessarily cause a wave of bankruptcies in Germany… if companies ceased production without officially declaring themselves insolvent. The subtlety, if not legally inaccurate, has exasperated companies, among whom anger is mounting at the explosion in energy prices and the risk of deindustrialization of the country.
Until now praised by economic circles for his pragmatism in the management of the energy crisis and for his communication skills, Mr. Habeck has been confronted, for a week, with the worst test for his credibility: the trial for incompetence, then that the Greens have been trying for ten years to demonstrate their ability to govern. He is particularly criticized for his decision, announced on September 5, not to really extend the last three nuclear power plants still in operation, while he has been calling for months to save energy by claiming that “every kilowatt-hour counts”.
Despite the acute energy crisis, the reactors will be taken off the grid at the end of the year. Only two of them will be placed ” reserved “, to be reactivated if needed this winter, at the latest until April 2023, he said. This unexpected middle way has been criticized from all sides: by environmental associations who wanted to bury nuclear power definitively, as planned, at the end of 2022, by the Christian Democrats and the Liberals who called for its extension for several years.
Loss of credibility
But, above all, by the electricity supply specialists, who agree that the proposed solution is expensive, without being really adapted to respond quickly to an increased need for electricity this winter. In a letter to the minister, the boss of the nuclear group PreussenElektra, Guido Knott, who operates one of the last power plants, thus estimated that “placing two of the three plants in cold reserve at the end of the year to start them up if needed is technically not feasible, and therefore inappropriate to guarantee the plants’ contribution to supply”.
The criticism was rejected by the minister, but it seriously undermined his promise to do everything to guarantee the security of the country’s energy supply. The episode adds to another controversy, which dates from mid-August, linked to the gas tax. This levy of approximately 2.4 euro cents per kilowatt hour, charged to consumers’ bills, was introduced in order to spread the weight of the additional costs of gas purchases by importing companies as widely as possible and thus avoid a wave of failures in the supply system.
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