Germany moves to shift electricity costs to taxpayers from ratepayers

Faced with an election this fall, and a series of losses in elections at lower levels of government, the Merkel government looks set to freeze the renewables surcharge.

There's an argument that cost will be controlled, as opposed to taxpayers making up a shortfall, but if they could control costs, I suggest they would have done so previously

Rösler Calls for EEG Reform Before Elections, Altmaier Proposes Amendment to Limit Electricity Prices « German Energy Blog:

Mr Altmaier has repeatedly said he wanted a broad consensus for an EEG reform, hence a fundamental reform was not likely to take place before the federal election. Mr Rösler on the other hand called for an EEG reform before the election. In a press release issued by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) today, Mr Rösler reiterated his demand, saying the government had to put a stop to the spiraling costs. Without going into further detail he demanded a fundamental reform of the EEG.
Today Mr Altmaier proposed an amendment of the EEG to be enacted by August this year, i.e. before the election, to limit electricity prices by limiting the EEG related costs.
His proposal consists of the following aspects:

• To ensure the predictability, reliability and affordability of the EEG related electricity price costs, the EEG surcharge shall be limited and mandated by law;

• For 2013 and 2014 the EEG surcharge shall amount to 5.28 ct/kWh, and the increase in the following years shall be limited to 2.5% per year;

The entire article can be read on the German Energy Blog

The primary drivers of the current annual $20 billion Euro EEG charge is 5-6% of generation coming from solar, and the 8% from wind.