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Weil complains about the "bureaucratized to death" energy transition: Heated debate on fracking - "That's lobbying!"

2022-11-25T12:56:27.670Z


Weil complains about the "bureaucratized to death" energy transition: Heated debate on fracking - "That's lobbying!" Created: 11/25/2022 13:46 Stephan Weil visiting Markus Lanz on November 24th, 2022. © Cornelia Lehmann/ZDF “Markus Lanz” leads to a war of words about fracking in Germany. Prime Minister Weil sees little chance for the alternative. Munich – Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan


Weil complains about the "bureaucratized to death" energy transition: Heated debate on fracking - "That's lobbying!"

Created: 11/25/2022 13:46

Stephan Weil visiting Markus Lanz on November 24th, 2022.

© Cornelia Lehmann/ZDF

“Markus Lanz” leads to a war of words about fracking in Germany.

Prime Minister Weil sees little chance for the alternative.

Munich – Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil attacks CDU leader Friedrich Merz on "Markus Lanz".

His criticism of the newly planned citizens' allowance is not credible, since he recently vehemently opposed an increase in the minimum wage.

The reform of the Hartz IV system offers the opportunity for further training and qualification.

"We have a need for skilled workers in Germany, and it's growing," says Weil.

You can't afford any more "revolving door effects" where the unemployed only get out of Hartz IV for a short time and then immediately go back to the job center.

"What Mr. Merz raised here were really secondary issues.

Whether I have the so-called protective assets at 40, 50 or 60,000 euros is really a question of taste,” says Weil.

It is important: "It is much more." It is "empirically proven: Most people receive Hartz IV because they are ill or because the qualifications are not correct."

"Markus Lanz": Weil advocates a further increase in the minimum wage

Moderator Lanz calculates that the state spends two billion euros on training measures every year.

“And yet we don't manage to qualify people.

The system actually failed completely." Because that's going too far: "Well, that's too drastic for me now." But Lanz goes one step further: "How can we ensure that someone who gets up in the morning and goes to work significantly more deserves than someone who doesn't?

He simply cannot live from his work.

That's deeply unfair, and that drives a lot of people up the wall." Weil agrees: "I think it's a very reasonable demand to raise the minimum wage even further."

These guests discussed with Markus Lanz

  • Ronny Blaschke

    (sports journalist)

  • Prof. Hans-Joachim Kümpel

    (geophysicist, former President of the Federal Office for Geosciences and Natural Resources)

  • Petra Pinzler

    (journalist, Die Zeit)

  • Stephan Weil

    (Prime Minister of Lower Saxony)

When it comes to fracking, the evening's two main duelists come into their own.

Geologist Prof. Hans-Joachim Kümpel explains where exactly the German gas deposits are - near Münster - and how clean and easy it could be to get it out of the ground.

No danger of earthquakes, no contaminated groundwater, corresponding videos from the USA with burning taps are wrong.

Nonetheless, he complains, fracking is "for the common good of Sodom and Gomorrah."

But: Not using shale gas is downright irresponsible for Germany.

But the former president of the Federal Office for Geosciences and Natural Resources has been hit hard.

When journalist Petra Pinzler starts to counter-speech, she turns off the gas supply to the brave new world of fracking.

"You can also tell the story the other way around," she begins.

Kümpel's authority finally sought advice from the industry-financed "Martini Foundation", "which liked fracking".

The authority classified the repository as harmless and discredited wind power with buzzwords such as infrasound.

Lanz is surprised and confronts Kümpel: "It sounds as if you are biased.

Is there something we don't know?”

"Markus Lanz": Fracking issue - journalist Pinzler puts pressure on geologist Kümpel

The geologist trembles inside.

"Interesting move," he says, and wants to explain where the foundation's money came from.

"Who was that?

Where did that come from?” Kümpel asks himself at length and looks intently at the studio ceiling.

After all, under the “foundation members” he also lists “people from research institutes and authorities” as well as those “from industry”.

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However, Pinzler continues to poke: "If the economy organizes a foundation that then encourages an authority to do certain studies, I would say that's lobbying." It visibly puts the former decision-maker in distress.

He finally retreats to "Scholzen" "I never had the impression that lobbying was being done." Pinzler turns the knife in the wound: "The foundation was financed by the economy."

Geologist Kümpel criticizes liquid gas from the USA: "High Co2 backpack"

In the midst of the discussion, Prime Minister Weil generally sees little chance for fracking in Germany.

There is no topic that upsets "the local people" like fracking: "Just the word and citizens' initiatives are formed." Kümpel replies: gas production through fracking is already possible in Germany next year.

In addition, liquid gas from the USA “has a high Co2 backpack of 20 to 25 percent”.

He criticizes the media.

“What is written there.

They should do an internship at a mining authority.”

Pinzler responds with general criticism: "What I'm experiencing at the moment is a permanent downplaying of the risks." , which is somehow taking place in the neighboring countries”.

Lanz is happy about the clear words: "You don't take any prisoners today."

For Weil, overpriced liquefied gas from the USA is not a real alternative: "It doesn't even improve our climate balance, it actually worsens it." After all, the new tanker terminals would be completed in record time and were "all H2-ready", i.e. fit for importing climate-neutral ones (green) hydrogen.

A welcome cue for Kümpel.

He proposes the continued use of fracking boreholes for geothermal energy.

It can be used for decades, is base load capable and climate-neutral: "That's a great thing." Kümpel: "I always have the feeling that everything is being explained away.

We are not at all looking for solutions how to get out of this jam.” Weil gratefully accepted the ball: “Deep geothermal energy is indeed a really good perspective and at the latest at this point we will both agree very quickly.

The energy transition has been “criticized to death by bureaucracy since 2017.

Now I think it will take until 2024 for things to get going again.”

Conclusion of the talk with Markus Lanz:

Pinzler and Kümpel spiced up the evening as engaged discussants.

In addition, Ronny Blaschke shone with impressive expertise.

The journalist deals with the political side of sport.

His look at the football World Cup in Qatar provided exciting details.

The fact that a Taliban office was set up in Qatar "at the request of the United States" may not have been the only surprise for Markus Lanz.

(Michael Goermann)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-11-25

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