Germany’s energy policies are among the biggest threats facing Europe’s economy, and if there’s a silver lining it is that German voters are beginning to realize it.
Recent polling suggests a consensus is solidifying in favor of nuclear energy in what has been a nuclear-skeptic country. If only the politicians in Berlin would catch up. [bold, links added]
The main controversy now concerns whether to extend the lives of the country’s three remaining nuclear reactors, which provide about 6% of its electricity but are scheduled to shut down at the end of the year.
Some 78% of respondents support running those power plants at least until summer 2023, according to a survey published on the weekend by Spiegel magazine, and 67% would support running the reactors for another five years.
Polling released last week by Infratest dimap for the ARD television network found similar levels of support.
Some 82% of respondents favor keeping nuclear power, half of those “for a few months” and half for the longer term.
That’s up from 61% who supported extending nuclear power in the firm’s June survey.
Even members of the anti-nuclear Green Party are coming around: 68% of self-identified Green voters supported extending nuclear in the latest survey, up from 38% in June.
One might ask what took Germans so long. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel instigated the nuclear phaseout in 2011 after the Fukushima disaster.
German voters allowed this to proceed with nary a peep of electoral disapproval—never mind that renewables can’t power an industrial economy and reliance on natural gas left Germany vulnerable to Vladimir Putin.
The new German support for nuclear power is all the more remarkable for arising without much political leadership.
Current Chancellor Olaf Scholz is dithering while Economy-and-Climate Minister Robert Habeck of the Green Party hems and haws about whether a nuclear extension would be safe and necessary.
German voters can see the toll of Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine and the cost of Berlin’s failed 20-year green-energy transition, and they are opening to reality.
The country’s economic prospects—and Europe’s—depend on whether their leaders will follow that example.
h/t Steve B.
Read more at WSJ
Folks in Germany & the rest of the EU better hope for a mild winter this coming season. Otherwise, the COLD reality of energy imperatives may just make for a huge “misery index” for the continent. That may even be a reality IF the Russians don’t completely curtail natural gas exports. Meanwhile in the U.S…our elected representatives (on one side of the aisle) don’t seem to be getting the message. Unfortunately by next Spring, I have a feeling a lot of folks in Europe will “curb” their their enthusiasm for the “green revolution.” I suggest our government in DC start paying attention. Otherwise, the U.S will unnecessarily find itself in a similar predicament in the very near future…
Randy, it may seem cruel but I am hoping for a winter of discontent so that the voters reject the “green energy” nonsense and demand exploiting their fossil fuel deposits. And it’s going to be happening here in North America pretty soon.
Germany reminds me of a classic Cheech and Chong skit.
“What is that, komrad? Hmmm, smells like sh!t. Tastes like sh!t, too.
Good thing we didn’t step in it!”
Screw Greenpeace go Nuclear