German Economic Experts Ready to Pull the Plug on Costly Clean Energy Industry

Germany’s top economic advisers and business leaders are saying it’s time to stop pouring money into “clean energy” production.

Their reason: It’s too expensive and there’s little return on investment.

“We need a drastic policy shift,” said Christoph Schmidt, chairman of Germany’s Council of Economic Experts. “They haven’t paid any attention to costs. These are now huge.”

Germany has long vowed to wean itself off of fossil fuels, but the cost of doing so has soared and it is expected to top roughly $1.3 trillion by 2030.

“It is a worthwhile goal, and the whole world is looking to see whether Germany can do it, so we can’t fail. But there have been so many mistakes,” Schmidt told the Daily Telegraph.

He stressed the country doesn’t have room to experiment with costly ventures as its own growth “speed limit” has dropped to one percent. And that’s on top of the fact that Germany is the most economically stable and profitable county in the EU.

The BDI, the country’s influential and powerful industry federation, agrees: “green romanticism,” as the Telegraph puts it, is wreaking havoc on Germany’s power supply.

"The rising surcharge placed on German household and SME bills to pay for renewable energy projects," the Telegraph notes.

“The international competitiveness of German industry is in danger,” the group said in a new report, stressing that clean energy costs have become unacceptable.

The group also criticized the country’s preference for subsidizing wind and solar energy, calling for an eventual end to the practice altogether. The BDI said Germany needs to invest in a strategic reserve of fossil fuels to ensure that the country can stay up and running.

“The government’s policy is not joined up,” BDI chief Markus Kerber said.

The group says the country needs to act immediately to address its “urgent concerns,” according to Handelsblatt.

Germany’s affair with “green romanticism” has not been pretty. The country’s energy costs are more than any other country in Europe and they are twice U.S. levels.

German taxpayers are getting fed up with having to help subsidize exempted “clean” business.

“Spiraling energy costs will soon drive us into the wall. It has become dangerous,” the German Chemical Industry Association said.

EU’s energy commissioner Günther Oettinger has called for a revolution in Germany’s energy strategy.

“We need industry; we cannot be the good guys for the whole world, if no one follows suit,” he said.

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Featured image Getty Images.

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