Germany
A Scoop of Ice Cream
In 2004 Germany's environment minister said the renewables programme cost a household about a euro a month, as much as a scoop of ice cream. Twenty-two years and about €320 billion of subsidy later, Germany has the second-highest household electricity price in the European Union and electricity that carries ten times as much carbon as France's. The build-out is real. The bargain was not, and the environment has little to show for it.
On 30 July 2004, two days before the reformed Renewable Energy Sources Act (the EEG) came into force, the federal environment minister, Jürgen Trittin, gave Germans a number to hold on to. Es bleibt dabei, his ministry quoted him, it …
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