Main focus of Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Life of German nuclear plants extended

The German government decided on Monday to extend the running times of the country's 17 nuclear power plants by around twelve years. While some commentators praise the move as economically and ecologically sound, others label it backward-looking clientelism.

Return to reason

The agreement reached by Germany's ruling conservative-liberal coalition to prolong running times of nuclear power plants is a revolution, writes the conservative daily Lidové noviny: "It is a revolution against the conviction that we, the citizens and voters, can have it all at once - clean, secure electricity that's cheap as well. It is a revolution against the tendency of one generation of politicians to cling to what a former generation said it would do. It is a revolution against a nuclear phase-out law pushed through eight years ago by the Social Democrat-Green Party government. Nevertheless what looks like a revolution is in fact just a return to reason. The government hasn't prolonged the running times of the nuclear power plants for its own pleasure, or to show its predecessors that it needn't hold to their regulations. Rather it is acting out of the conviction that fears of rising prices for alternative energy are greater than those of nuclear power. Whether that is really the case will be shown by the strength of protests." (07/09/2010)

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Turning point in international nuclear policy

With its postponement of its nuclear power phase-out Germany is following the example of the US, writes the left-liberal daily El País: "The measure .... is a significant turning point in the history of nuclear energy in Europe. Berlin has played a decisive role in forming public anti-nuclear opinion, pointing the way for other countries, particularly the Spanish government. Berlin is now converging with the new pro-nuclear stance on the other side of the Atlantic where Barack Obama, a consistent defender of renewable energies, is promoting the construction of new nuclear plants after a building freeze that lasted 30 years. The reason is that it is vital for our planet to reduce the CO2 emissions produced by fossil fuels. And reducing the use of these fuels substantially requires putting a huge effort into renewable energies while at the same time sustaining or even increasing the production of nuclear power." (07/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Environmental Policy, » Energy, » Social movements, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » Spain, » U.S.

Merkel violates sense of justice

German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls the decision to extend Germany's nuclear phase-out an energy revolution. But the left-liberal daily Frankfurter Rundschau considers the decision unwise and economically regressive: "After all, the renewable energies are not just a pastime for eco-optimists. They are a crucial economic and growth factor. ... Merkel should never have approved an extension to the nuclear phase-put which demands so little, practically nothing, from the nuclear industry. She should never have said yes to such gigantic profit margins without demanding anything worth mentioning in return. She is violating society's highly developed sense of justice. A sense of justice that manifests itself in very different ways: in the protests against the gigantic Stuttgart 21 train station project, in approval of Sarrazin's description of the failure of integration, in the resistance to a standardised school system and, as we will see, in outrage at the prospect of even more nuclear waste and the unresolved question of where it ends up." (07/09/2010)

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More from the press review on the subject » Domestic Policy, » Environmental Policy, » Energy, » Social movements, » Germany
All available articles from » Brigitte Fehrle

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