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Coal: Eastern countries threaten with the exit from the exit

2019-11-29T17:02:16.888Z


Minister of Economic Affairs Altmaier also wants to close lignite power plants in the east. But the prime ministers of the affected countries covet after SPIEGEL information against it.



The dispute over the end of coal-fired power generation in Germany seemed settled when a government commission presented a compromise with all those involved at the end of January. Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) presented a bill to it last month: According to then, it should be over, and already in the next few years, a whole series of power plants will be shut down - initially in the west of the country. At least, the prime ministers of the eastern brown coal states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony had originally agreed with Altmaier, orally.

But now the sovereigns are mad at Altmaier. According to SPIEGEL information, the prime ministers are questioning the compromise to phase out coal-fired power generation. The Federal Ministry of Economics led by Altmaier obviously wants to close lignite power plants in the East before 2030, including the Schkopau power plant near Leipzig around 2026.

This is against the agreement to begin first in the Rheinische Revier, which was met in the Commission for Growth, Structural Change and Employment, it is said, for example, from the government of Saxony-Anhalt. Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) fears the frustration of the citizens in the lignite mining regions.

Altmaier under pressure

The problem of the Ministry of Economic Affairs is that, according to plan, it will have to take 12.5 gigawatts of power plant capacity off the grid by 2023, but this amount has not yet been collected. To make matters worse, a new coal-fired power plant not yet connected to the grid in Datteln, North Rhine-Westphalia, is to be put into operation.

With the operator Uniper Altmaier strives for a deal: For the commissioning of dates Uniper is to close or retrofit older Kohlemeiler. These coal mines could also include the Schkopau coal-fired power plant in Saxony-Anhalt: Uniper has offered to convert the controversial lignite-fired power station to gas. However, the East-country leaders want to stay with the coal firing because of the jobs in the open pit. They demand a new summit in the Chancellery to clarify the dispute.

Minister of Economic Affairs Altmaier is already under pressure because of the Kohlaususstiegsgesetzes. Originally he had wanted to regulate in it also new distance rules of wind turbines for residential development and this fixed at 1000 meters. By contrast, there were strong protests from wind power manufacturers, operators and climate protectors. In a new version of the draft he has highlighted these controversial passages. The topic should be settled at a later date. The same applies to the exact timetable for decommissioning the lignite-fired power plants.

Negotiations between the operators, including RWE, EnBW, Leag and Uniper, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs took place mid-week. Originally they wanted to agree on the schedule but also on compensation payments, but this was not successful. The negotiations should be continued in the coming week.

The green energy expert Oliver Krischer asks Altmaier to pull the talks to themselves. "For ten months he has put his hands on his lap," says the MP: "Now he has to deliver results, so that the complete timetable for the brown coal withdrawal does not get mixed up."

This topic comes from the new SPIEGEL magazine - available at the kiosk from Saturday morning and every Friday at SPIEGEL + and in the digital magazine edition.

What is in the new SPIEGEL and what stories you find at SPIEGEL +, you will also learn in our free policy newsletter DIE LAGE, which appears six times a week - compact, analytical, opinionated, written by the political minds of the editorial.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2019-11-29

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