With his demand to examine the controversial fracking in northern Germany, the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) triggered sharp reactions. “Are you still okay?” tweeted Lower Saxony’s head of state, Stephan Weil (SPD). Weil countered that Söder had particularly emphasized the natural gas reserves in Lower Saxony in the SZ interview: “Dear Markus Söder, how about finally wind power in Bavaria?” The background: Söder has been criticized in his own state because the strict 10H distance rule has made it difficult to build wind turbines there for years.
The federal government also reacted skeptically to Söder’s initiative. It is currently about finding solutions that could help with bottlenecks in the coming winter, said a spokeswoman for Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens). “Unconventional fracking doesn’t help,” she said. Scientifically accompanied test drillings are already permitted. The economy just doesn’t want to do any. “There have been no applications for test drilling from industry up to now and there haven’t been any in the past few years either,” said the spokeswoman. Such test drillings are also very time-consuming. Other projects in this area are “banned due to the harmful effects on the environment and water”.
“Looking for the solution with others is typical Bavarian”
Lower Saxony’s energy minister also made it clear: “Fracking is not an option.” Finding the solution to problems “with others is typical of Bavaria,” said Olaf Lies (SPD). Fracking uses pressure and chemicals to extract gas or oil from rock layers, which poses environmental hazards. “No one wants yesterday’s fracking,” Söder said. However, it is “sensible to check whether there are new and environmentally friendly methods”. The topic is also controversial within the federal government. In June, the FDP questioned the fracking ban in Germany. In Germany, only fracking in sandstone layers is permitted, but not so-called unconventional fracking, for example in slate rock. Minister Habeck immediately rejected the FDP proposal. “It takes years, if you want to do it at all, to develop deposits like this,” he said. “There’s no interest in doing that.”
Green leader Omid Nouripour called the fracking initiative from Bavaria a “sham debate”. It’s about getting through “the next one or two winters” while becoming independent of Russian gas, he said. According to Nouripour, fracking will bring relevant production volumes in five years at the earliest. He also pointed out that only three new wind turbines were approved in Bavaria in 2020 and that the Union is responsible for dependence on Russia. “Markus Söder is the problem bear of the energy supply in Germany,” said Nouripour.
Markus Söder then reacted to the criticism of himself and the Bavarian wind power balance via Twitter. When it comes to power generation from renewable energies, “we are well above the national average,” wrote the CSU party leader, “now we’re going to put in the turbo and are also getting a lot better with the wind.” In the first half of the year, 13 new wind turbines were applied for in Bavaria. However, only four were approved in the same period. Söder gets an objection from his own coalition partner. The Free Voters announced that they “still vehemently” reject the use of this technology.