Fancy that, Germany has co-governance too. But they do things differently over there.
Can you imagine a government made up of ACT, Labour and Greens? As a fresh replacement for an eternal National – Labour coalition? Welcome to Berlin.
But some things always stay the same. The Greens have a problem understanding power and compromise.
The latest manifestation is a party hissy fit over insufficient environmental purity.
Not satisfied with closing down nuclear power during an energy crisis, and with broader measures to ensure a “ban on petrol and diesel cars” and the phasing-out of “fossil-fuel heating systems”, the party faithful are suffering a melt-down.
Why? Because their mismatched coalition partners have secured some concessions: green-focused planning reforms (oxymoronic?) will be used to speed up motorway improvements; carbon reduction targets will not be narrowly sectoral; and new-install fossil-fuel heating systems will not be banned outright from next year.
Why again? Political realism, as this quote from the Financial Times might suggest:
“ … the Greens underestimated Germans’ strength of feeling on the subject. “The trouble with the Greens is that they’re a rich people’s party,” said one official. “Their voters can afford to exchange their heating systems. But others can’t.””
Good to see, because Germany does seem a little short on political realism at the moment.
The first night after shutting off their last nuclear plants was not the best advertisement for a Green future, with the national grid having to lean heavily on French nuclear and inefficient (carbon-emitting) bioenergy.
But it would be a mistake to think of this as just another spat between fresh-faced enthusiasts and grizzled veterans.
You might want to take it as an illustration of what happens when an important aspect of living is gradually removed from free exchange and becomes dominated by increasingly-unrealistic political goals and processes.
Well-functioning markets let innovators come up with cheaper ways to satisfy changing demand.
Regulators react differently; imposing another rule when the first one fails to achieve its goal.
So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see productivity in energy markets going down and firms demanding either extra-high rates of return for productive investment or government handouts for the inefficient investments specified by bureaucrats.
We should be paying attention to what is happening in Germany because it is a world leader in mistakes in energy politics and markets.
And if we are lucky, voters might refocus quickly enough to avoid our driving greenly over the same cliff.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
Not satisfied with closing down nuclear power during an energy crisis, and with broader measures to ensure a “ban on petrol and diesel cars” and the phasing-out of “fossil-fuel heating systems”, the party faithful are suffering a melt-down.
Why? Because their mismatched coalition partners have secured some concessions: green-focused planning reforms (oxymoronic?) will be used to speed up motorway improvements; carbon reduction targets will not be narrowly sectoral; and new-install fossil-fuel heating systems will not be banned outright from next year.
Why again? Political realism, as this quote from the Financial Times might suggest:
“ … the Greens underestimated Germans’ strength of feeling on the subject. “The trouble with the Greens is that they’re a rich people’s party,” said one official. “Their voters can afford to exchange their heating systems. But others can’t.””
Good to see, because Germany does seem a little short on political realism at the moment.
The first night after shutting off their last nuclear plants was not the best advertisement for a Green future, with the national grid having to lean heavily on French nuclear and inefficient (carbon-emitting) bioenergy.
But it would be a mistake to think of this as just another spat between fresh-faced enthusiasts and grizzled veterans.
You might want to take it as an illustration of what happens when an important aspect of living is gradually removed from free exchange and becomes dominated by increasingly-unrealistic political goals and processes.
Well-functioning markets let innovators come up with cheaper ways to satisfy changing demand.
Regulators react differently; imposing another rule when the first one fails to achieve its goal.
So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see productivity in energy markets going down and firms demanding either extra-high rates of return for productive investment or government handouts for the inefficient investments specified by bureaucrats.
We should be paying attention to what is happening in Germany because it is a world leader in mistakes in energy politics and markets.
And if we are lucky, voters might refocus quickly enough to avoid our driving greenly over the same cliff.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
1 comment:
The Germans don't need a World War to wreck their economy, they just elect the Green Party!
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