Germany postponed its departure from nuclear energy on Monday, announcing plans to keep on as an energy reserve two final reactors that were due to go offline by December.
With Russian gas shut off via the Nord Stream pipeline, and criticism mounting over a €65 billion cost-of-living relief package, federal economics and energy minister Robert Habeck insisted Germany has a “high level of energy supply security”.
Presenting an energy “stress test”, however, he said a combination of factors — from a throttling of Russian gas to extreme summer weather and renewable energy shortages — meant a new situation had arisen.
Two nuclear plants, in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, generating 1,400 megawatts each, will be allowed operate until April 2023 — four months longer than originally planned, to free up gas for manufacturers and home heating.
“We have a number of uncertain factors, and the summer has exacerbated this significantly with the drought,” said Mr Habeck, noting that mothballed coal-fired power stations had also been reactivated to boost energy production. “The nuclear reserve is a targeted response.”
With an eye on his own Green Party, a vocal opponent of nuclear energy, Mr Habeck insisted that this was a temporary, limited extension of Germany’s nuclear energy era — abolished twice in the last 20 years.
“Nuclear energy is not something to be played with,” he said. “An across-the-board extension in service life would be justifiable with regard to the safety of the nuclear power plants.”
Germany’s opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) attacked Mr Habeck for “putting his party ideology before the country”.
“In this crisis winter we need absolutely every kilowatt hour of electricity,” said Mr Jens Spahn, CDU deputy leader.
Energy crisis: Are businesses ready to deal with blackouts?
Criticism has also rained down on the third relief package for Germans battling the cost-of-living crisis.
A €65 billion package agreed by Berlin on Sunday foresees a higher child allowance, special energy payments of between €200 and €300 for pensioners and students as well as one-off energy payments of between €415 and €540 for households.
The plan drops the VAT on gas bills to 7 per cent for the winter months and, from 2023, promises higher welfare payments and a new low-cost travel ticket to replace the summer €9-a-month offer.
While federal finance minister Christian Lindner described the package as “hefty”, largely financed by a windfall tax, experts lined up on Monday to criticise the package as not focused enough on those most in need.
‘Impressive overall’
Economist Marcel Fratzscher, head of Berlin’s DIW economic institute, called it a “half-baked” example of trickle-down economics that “will not benefit enough people in the middle class and those with lower incomes. Better earners will receive most of the €65 billion.”
Opposition politicians, from the centre-right CDU to the hard-left Linke, agreed that the package will benefit top earners most.
“The package will not prevent the impoverishment avalanche that could roll over Germany in winter,” said Linke co-leader Dietmar Bartsch.
For economist Veronika Grimm, an economic adviser to the federal government, the windfall tax carried in-built risks if companies held back with investment.
“We need this investment urgently if we are to overcome the energy crisis in the medium term,” she warned.
For Germany’s largest services union Verdi, the lack of additional direct payments for people with low and middle incomes meant that “high earners will be relieved by the tax plans by up to €1,000″, money they need less than others.
But Germany’s trades union federation welcomed the package as “impressive overall” and urged the government to “convert quickly the good intentions into concrete and convincing legislation”.
