Energy-poor Germany finally decides to keep nuclear plants online through the winter

Jack McEvoy, DCNF

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Monday that his country will keep its nuclear plants online until April 2023 to combat winter fuel shortages and ameliorate its mounting energy crisis.

Scholz ordered for the plants to stay open until April 15, 2023 “at the longest” after his economy minister, Robert Habeck, and the Green Party voted on Saturday to shut the plants down by the end of 2022, according to a letter he sent to his cabinet that was acquired by Politico. Germany is urging its citizens to ration electricity as sky-high natural gas prices are crippling the nation’s economy and spiking household electricity costs.

Although the Greens voted on Saturday to close nuclear plants by the end of 2022, they voted to keep coal-fired power plants online until 2030 due to the nation’s energy crisis, according to Reuters. Enforcing a nuclear power shutdown has historically been an important policy goal of Germany’s climate activist Green Party.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democratic Party argued that all three plants should continue operating until at least 2024, according to Politico. Throughout its energy crisis, the German government has constantly debated shutting down all nuclear plants by the beginning of 2023 or keeping some plants open to generate power during times of emergencies.

Roughly 15% of Germans wanted nuclear plants to be switched off as planned on Dec. 31, 2022, according to an August poll. The poll also showed that 41% of Germans support the extension of the remaining plants for several months, while another 41% would support the use of nuclear energy in the long term.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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