Germany's Green Energy Transition May Force Out Industry

The public discussion about Germany's green energy transition has taken a new direction. The rise of electricity prices in Germany is suddenly no longer blamed on the billions spent for building solar and wind farms, biomass plants and power grids. Now it is “the industry” which is being blamed for its lobbying which has resulted in a variety of financial reliefs, compensations and tax exemptions and for abandoning the 'community solidarity' of this 'national effort.' The green industry lobby has agreed to this new line of attack after it came under increasing pressure by the rampant increase in costs. It's new motto: it is not the absolute level of costs, which is the problem, but its unjust distribution. --Daniel Wetzel, Die Welt, 7 August 2012

UK Energy Minister Charles Hendry announced yesterday the scrapping of 86 environmental regulations that will save businesses £400 million over the next 20 years. The package of reforms, which also includes improvements to a further 48 regulatory regimes, is part of the government’s Red Tape Challenge that aims to remove surplus regulation hindering businesses. --Energy Efficiency News, 8 August 2012

It seems that betting against the “consensus” of left-wing academics, regulatory-state bureaucrats and anti-capitalist activists can be a rather profitable sideline. First nuclear power, and now peak oil. At the rate George Monbiot is changing his mind, we’ll all soon agree that the disaster of the peak oil non-disaster is not much of a disaster after all. --Ivo Vegter, Daily Maverick, 7 August 2012

Solar subsidies are a placebo which is giving the general public a sense of security about our energy future and is robbing the motivation of those entrepreneurs that could actually address our energy problems. Subsidies are much worse that just wasteful, they’re diabolical. They lull us into thinking we have almost solved the problem and they hinder us from seeking the real solutions. In the near term, perhaps our bigger concern than climate change is anthropogenic energy policy. --David Bergeron, The Big Questions, 6 August 2012

The Government’s ideological obsession with wind power is inflicting ever greater damage on Britain, driving up our energy bills and ruining our countryside. Brutalist, expensive and inefficient, wind farms are nothing more than vast monuments to political vanity. They contribute little to our electricity supply, yet they cost us all a fortune. There is a curious paradox at work here. In the name of protecting the environment, the green politicians are inflicting terrible damage on our landscape. Anyone who loves our green and pleasant land should be fighting for the removal of these monstrosities. --Leo McKinstry, Daily Express, 8 August 2012