Earlier exit from coal: Clear criticism comes from Lindner’s FDP – “Dramatic mistake”
Created: 05/10/2022 05:08
By: Franziska Schwarz
The federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia will phase out lignite earlier than planned.
This was announced by Economics Minister Robert Habeck.
Update from October 4th, 1:42 p.m
.: The FDP is clearly criticizing the planned early phase-out of coal in western Germany.
Group Vice President Lukas Köhler told the dpa news agency that the proposal, which was not coordinated in the traffic light coalition, harbored “considerable risks”.
In the current energy crisis, the political decision to shut down power plants meant that the necessary coal-fired power plants only went back on the grid much too late.
“In order for the phase-out of coal to be successful by 2030, not only must renewable energies and the necessary grids be available in sufficient quantities, but also significantly more flexible gas-fired power plants than before.
Even if we do everything we can, nobody can say with certainty that everything will go exactly as planned," explained Köhler.
The FDP energy politician Michael Kruse said: "Politically fixed shutdown dates have made our energy system vulnerable, Robert Habeck should not repeat this dramatic mistake."
Köhler said that the FDP parliamentary group still stands by the goal agreed in the coalition agreement, ideally to complete the coal phase-out by 2030 - so far this is planned by 2038. However, the coalition agreed in the coalition agreement not to change the coal phase-out law for this purpose .
“It would be a mistake to make political decisions again today that can only be corrected later with great effort.
The CO2 price in EU emissions trading will in any case mean that the market-based phase-out of coal will be completed by around 2030.”
Energy crisis in Germany: Christian Lindner at a press conference in Berlin in September 2022 © Kay Nietfeld/dpa
Exit from lignite: Habeck wants to bring it forward eight years in NRW
First report from October 4
: Düsseldorf – Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) plans that the lignite phase-out in North Rhine-Westphalia should take place as early as 2030.
The Greens politician has agreed on this with the North Rhine-Westphalian Economics Minister Mona Neubaur (Greens) and the energy company RWE.
This is reported by the
editorial network Germany (RND).
Originally, the year 2038 was planned for the exit.
280 million tons of coal remained in the ground;
RWE announced that this corresponds to 280 million tons of CO2 that would no longer be emitted.
Lignite phase-out: RWE wants to invest 50 billion euros in the energy transition by 2030
The decision is part of an agreement between the company and the responsible Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection and the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The group emphasized that this did not entail any additional compensation for the company.
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RWE intends to invest more than 50 billion euros worldwide by 2030 to accelerate the energy transition.
15 billion euros are planned for Germany, the group said.
With the exit from coal, the downsizing will “accelerate significantly” towards the end of the decade, the company explained.
RWE assured that the exit would be "socially responsible".
However, security of supply is currently the order of the day, RWE explained.
The two lignite-fired power plant blocks Neurath D and E in North Rhine-Westphalia, which should go offline at the end of the year, should therefore continue to run until the end of March 2024.
(AFP/frs)
