SUMMARY:
German Chancellor
Angela Merkel has
an official deal for
Germany's delayed
exit from coal-fired
power generation.
State leaders
agreed to
shut down
all coal power
plants by 2038.
Meanwhile,
Germany is
about to open
a coal
power plant
run by
a fossil fuel
company !
“It cannot be that
Germany’s coal exit
will be marked by
the opening of one
of the biggest coal-fired
power stations in Europe,”
said senior Green Party
politician Oliver Krischer
in an email to Bloomberg.
But Germany
is doing just that !
That’s what
Germany gets
for abandoning
nuclear power.
Meanwhile, France
relies on nuclear
for 80% of its electricity,
defeating the purpose
of Germany going
nuclear free.
( Yet 70% to 80%
of French cars
run on diesel fuel ! )
DETAILS:
Germany's coal plant
shut down plan includes
40 billion euros
( $44.6 billion )
in compensation
for impacted regions,
according to Bloomberg.
The country's largest
coal-fired power producer,
RWE AG, will receive
2.6 billion euros
according to an insider.
In eastern Germany,
utility Lignite operators
will receive 1.75 billion
euros according to
German Finance
Minister Olaf Scholz.
Climate tops
voter concerns,
but Germany
will already miss
its 2020 targets
under the Paris
Agreement.
On the other hand,
the poorer states
in the former
Communist East,
where the bulk
of the mines are,
fear a growing gap
to the West.
The Greens party,
and the far-right
Alternative
for Germany
( AfG ),
are both
gaining support.
Squeezing out Germany’s
traditional mainstream
parties, including Merkel's
Christian Democrats.
The AfG has been
particularly strong
in the eastern
mining states.
Armin Laschet,
premier of the state of
North-Rhine Westphalia,
in an interview with
Deutschlandfunk radio,
said approximately
3,000 jobs will be lost
from coal plant closures,
which will occur
more quickly
in the west
German states.
Under the agreement,
LEAG's Jaenschwalde
power plant will convert
into a gas-fired unit
to use Russian gas
from the now
under construction
Nordstream 2 pipeline.
In November 2019,
a Bloomberg headline
read, “Germany Is
Turning Gas-Fired
Power Plants Back On”.
A new coal power plant
is not exactly what
German people expected.
The german government
says after the Fukushima
Japan nuclear plant
tidal wave accident,
'we had to (?)
shut down all
nuclear power'.
The only alternative was coal.
'But by 2038, we’ll be off coal.'
The German government
claims they are closing
higher pollution older
coal power plants as the
new ones are more efficient.
This could be the last
new coal plant in Europe.
The German government
pledged aid to the regions
of Germany set to be
worst hit by the coal ban.
The coal companies
are fighting over the
close down subsidies.
They are changing
their business models
to maximize the chance
of getting their hands
on some of that cash.
The German government
is subsidizing coal,
by helping to pay for its
future decommissioning.
The new coal plant
is being built by
a listed company
called Uniper.
About 30%
of Uniper’s power
comes from coal
and half from gas.
The stock has
almost tripled
in value since
it was spun off
and listed in 2016
-- not bad
for believers
in E.ON’s
unwanted
fossil fuel
assets.