International climate activist Al Gore says Germany must further push its domestic energy markets to embrace green energy or risk getting “left behind,” Politico reports.
Within the last decade, Germany has pursued an aggressive strategy to transition its energy grid away from fossil fuels and toward renewable sources such as solar and wind.
German politicians have used subsidies to encourage new investment and regulations to cut down on emissions, Fortune Magazine reports.
“Germany was a model for the rest of the world and a narrative took hold here in Germany that might be summarized as ‘Germany leads and everyone follows,’” former Vice President Gore told Politico in an interview. “But that narrative is now out of date.”
The German people have funded the green revolution through taxes and a surcharge on energy bills that caused the average German’s energy costs to skyrocket more than 50 percent from 2006 to 2016.
“For us, it’s a very good business, but for the German people it’s very bad,” German farmer and entrepreneur Dieter Dürrmeier told Fortune for a March 2017 article.
Dürrmeier is enrolled in a government program that pays his family about $42,000 annually to produce solar energy from panels attached to the roof of his barns and house.
The aggressive national policy is pricing natural gas and nuclear energy plants out of markets. Plants are shuttering in towns where energy production is a major segment of the economy, Fortune reports.
German politicians are also phasing out nuclear energy because of fears of another Fukushima disaster. In 2011, a tsunami hit the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, causing a nuclear meltdown in three reactor cores.
Fears spread that nuclear fallout and radiation could kill thousands, though no cases of sickness or death related to radiation have been recorded.
Pushing out carbon-neutral nuclear plants have put more reliance on German coal plants to burn increasing amounts of cheap lignite coal, which is plentiful in Germany. Germany produced 40 percent of its energy from coal in 2016, Fortune reports.
“Germany is in danger of being left behind as more aggressive EU governments seize the lead,” Gore told Politico. “The competitive advantages and job creation advantages of the sustainability revolution put Germany at risk of being left behind. Of course, the subsidies for coal in Germany are enormous.”
Read more at Daily Caller
Even worse than the German push to the so-called “green energy” was the decision to shut down their nuclear plants following Fukushima. Do they expect a tsunami to hit Germany? Or even an earthquake? By shutting down these base electricity plants that wind and solar cannot replace they’ve been forced to use coal plants–plain ol’ stupid!
Gore is repeating that same lie that the greens have been pushing for over a decade. That is green energy leads to economic prosperity. Years ago I read articles written by environmentalist that the US needed to really invest in green energy or we would be left behind.
The reality is Germany has invested in green energy and as a result they are the one that will be left behind. One essential ingredient for economic prosperity is inexpensive energy. Germany’s investment in green energy has their rates at triple the average of the US.
And Germany continues down that path while we don’t here in the US you can expect more manufacturing to move from Germany to the southern states of the US.
All of the above fits into the statement parallel to renewables and GDP. ‘The operation was a success. The patient died but the operation was a success.’ The economics are simple. If renewables were actually mechanically viable, no government subsidies would be needed and investors would be lined up in the thousands. The bloody things don’t work worth a ‘Tinker’s Damn.’
Al Bore needs to live in a grass hut without any electricity at all no Air Condiotners or heaters to keep him comfortible no transportation save for his feet after all he pays a bigger electric bill each month then the average American Family pays in one year
Doubtful anyone in Germany gives a hoot what Al Who says .
What his sermon really confirms is the political passengers on the globalist train are disembarking and once Germany comes to it’s senses too the whole caper collapses .
Hey they had a good run . Some people got rich , tax payers/energy users got
screwed , and hundreds of thousand’s lost their lives early due to government imposed fuel poverty policies .
It isn’t the fact it’s a scam that brought it down although most people aren’t buying what the scary global warming industry is selling , it’s that politicians that continue to
screw tax payers and trash their economies who are going to get unelected real fast .
The globalist , governments and corporate rent seekers are just going to have to find a new tax vein to hit . Al had his 15 minutes 13 years ago and scientists are returning to real science for a change .
I think it’s doubtful anyone in the U.S. (or any other civilized country) gives a hoot what Al Who says.
Phooie on Al Bore and his stupid Oscar and his undeserved Nobel Prize and phooie on his stupid poem i have yet to see him give up his easy life to live in a grass hut and stay at home rather then flying all over the globe to spew his Lies,Hot Air and Hypocricy