Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) in an inner party referendum approved a coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel; SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel will become minister for economics and energy.I don't hate to say I told you so, so ... Sigmar Gabriel is the source of the quote I used to begin Germany's Will to Power:
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Merkel in a change to her cabinet will create a new ministry for economics and energy that will be headed by SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel.
With that, Gabriel will be the main responsible for the Energiewende - Germany's move away from nuclear ...
“If someone declares publicly that nuclear power would be needed in the baseload because of fluctuating energy from wind or sun in the grid, he has either not understood how an electricity grid or a nuclear power plant operates, or he consciously lies to the public. Nuclear energy and renewable energies cannot be combined.”The new German coalition has softened it's stance against continued use of lignite, altered targets for renewable to change goal posts from 2020 to 2025 (and 2035) - and those goals for 2025 are essentially to maintain the share of generation from various forms of coal and methane (they don't put it that way - just do the math on what share isn't to come from "renewables")
In addition Germany has successfully fought EU attempts at strengthening standard for emissions from automobiles, and is currently manipulating the EU to fight the U.K.'s contracting of new nuclear generation.
Wow! The connection between "economics and energy" is something that has eluded pretty well all politicians in the Western World but your framing of Gabriel's comment doesn't bode well for the actual results that may fall out of Merkel's appointment and the new ministry.
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