“Excessive flood of regulations” – CDU economic council criticizes Habeck’s energy saving plans
“I’m seriously concerned about the impending poverty of the middle class”
“You can’t save in a crisis. The money is ready,” says Berlin SPD leader Raed Saleh. Above all, he worries about the people who have not previously been dependent on the state. Among other things, he calls for a general reduction in VAT on staple foods.
Closed doors in retail, hand wash basins only with cold water – this is how energy should be saved in the crisis, if Minister of Economics Habeck has his way. Now comes criticism from the CDU Economic Council.
Dhe CDU Economic Council has criticized the energy saving plans of Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) as “small-scale and completely exaggerated flood of regulations”. “The draft regulation makes it clear that the federal government is not following an orderly plan that will reliably supply citizens and business with energy for the next few years and make energy affordable again,” said the association’s general secretary, Wolfgang Steiger, to the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND). Saturday.
Instead of solving the problem with longer nuclear lifetimes and long-term gas contracts, “the Federal Minister of Economics indulges in excessive micromanagement and wants to specifically specify when doors in retail outlets are closed, hand wash basins are only used with cold water and pool heaters are completely banned,” said Steiger. Reactions to the energy shortage are only made with “quick shots from the ideological mothball box”. These would only “show a minimal, quantifiable effect” and “negligently” jeopardize Germany as an industrial location.
The draft regulation for saving energy from September was announced on Friday. According to this, it should be no more than 19 degrees at the workplace, retailers should keep the doors of their shops closed, advertising should not shine at night, private swimming pools should no longer be heated with electricity or gas. The measures are to apply for six months – until February 28, 2023.
“Energy saving is a joint task of politicians, companies and consumers,” says the draft. Every kilowatt hour saved helps a little bit out of the dependency on Russian gas supplies.
Habeck announced the Energy Saving Ordinance in mid-August and also gave the first details. The EU gas emergency plan came into effect in August. According to this, the member states should save 15 percent of gas from the beginning of August to March next year – compared to the average of the past five years of this period. How the 27 EU countries do this is up to them. The German savings target is 20 percent.