“The Federal Audit Office sees the danger that the energy transition in this form will endanger Germany as a business location and overwhelm the financial strength of electricity-consuming companies and private households. This can ultimately jeopardise social acceptance of the energy transition.”
The Federal Audit Office has accused the Federal Ministry of Economics of insufficiently monitoring the energy transition and of poorly managing it. The auditors have now renewed this criticism of energy policy expressed three years ago in a further special report – and added an explosive analysis of security of supply.
“Since our last balance sheet in 2018, too little has been done to successfully shape the energy transition,” said the President of the Federal Audit Office, Kay Scheller, when presenting the second special report: “That is sobering.”
There is a threat of ever higher electricity prices
Previously, the main focus was on controlling the costs of the energy transition, the auditors now also analysed whether Germany’s electricity supply was secure. The result is alarming. According to the study, the federal government does not have “the emerging, real dangers to security of supply in view.” The monitoring of the energy transition is “incomplete”.
“Ever higher electricity prices” are also to be feared in the current system. The Federal Court of Auditors quoted from a study according to which an additional 525 billion euros would have to be raised for the power supply including the network expansion in the years 2020 to 2025. Electricity prices for private households are already 43 percent above the European average.
“The Federal Audit Office sees the danger that the energy transition in this form will endanger Germany as a business location and overwhelm the financial strength of electricity-consuming companies and private households,” warned Scheller when presenting the special report: “This can ultimately jeopardise social acceptance of the energy transition.”
The report is also explosive due to the fact that the auditors had already submitted their criticism to the responsible Federal Ministry of Economics. The answers, explanations and justifications of the ministry, led by CDU politician Peter Altmaier, were incorporated into the auditor’s report. However, these could not significantly soften the conclusions of the auditors.
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via The Global Warming Policy Forum
March 31, 2021 at 05:30AM
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