Greens disagree with Woidke: coal phase-out must come in 2030
The Greens in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia are pushing for Germany to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2030 and no later. In doing so, they are also turning against Brandenburg's Minister President Dietmar Woidke (SPD), who does not consider an early phase-out by 2030 to be feasible with regard to the electricity supply.
"The debate today is no longer yes or no to the coal phase-out and the debate is no longer: will it happen in 2030 or will it not happen in 2030?" said Brandenburg's Green parliamentary group leader Benjamin Raschke in Potsdam on Tuesday. "We will have a market-driven coal phase-out."
NRW Green Party leader Wibke Brems defended the agreed coal phase-out for the Rhineland coalfield. "This is of course something that is very, very important to us and the date remains very clear, even if there have been question marks about it from other quarters," said Brems in Potsdam. She conceded that the coal phase-out would not be easy and would be a major task.
For the Rhenish mining area, politicians and the energy company RWE had agreed to bring forward the phase-out by eight years to 2030. Gas-fired power plants are also to be operated with renewable hydrogen on a transitional basis. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is also aiming for an earlier phase-out for the coal regions in eastern Germany, but there is resistance to this.
Brandenburg's head of government Woidke called on the federal government to quickly present a concept for the electricity supply of the future in the "Handelsblatt" newspaper at the weekend. The SPD politician said that he had never considered a coal phase-out by 2030 to be realistic.
The Greens in North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg campaigned for citizens to participate directly in the profits from green electricity in order to increase acceptance. According to Brems, the planned Citizens' Energy Act in NRW envisages wind farm operators agreeing the possibility of direct compensation or financial participation with local authorities, for example. In Brandenburg, certain local authorities already receive a share of wind farm revenues, and this is also planned for solar plants.
The Green parliamentary group leader in Brandenburg, Benjamin Raschke, advocated for a market-driven coal phase-out by 2030, contradicting Brandenburg's Minister President Woidke's position. In North Rhine-Westphalia, the Greens, led by Wibke Brems, are firmly committed to the agreed coal phase-out by 2030 for the Rhineland coalfield.
Source: www.dpa.com
