Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) first published a paper in which he called for a turning point in economic policy with lower taxes and less regulation. Now he has described high energy prices as the “new normal” and called for the ban on fracking to be lifted. The FDP leader is doing everything to increase his party’s visibility ahead of the Epiphany meeting next Friday.
Lindner also accepts a dispute with the coalition partners of the SPD and the Greens. In the most recent case, he is mainly crossed with Robert Habeck (Greens). The economy minister had stated that he hoped that the high gas prices for consumers would fall by the end of 2023.
Habeck had referred to the expansion of the liquid gas terminals. If the infrastructure for importing liquid gas is expanded at the current pace, “then we will also get world market prices that are well below what we have now,” Habeck had asserted.
In the “Bild am Sonntag” Lindner now held against it. “Gas via the liquid gas terminals is more expensive than Russian pipeline gas for logistical reasons,” said the FDP leader. “So the price level remains higher, but without ruinous spikes,” he added.
According to Lindner, the traffic light should lift the fracking ban in Germany in the new year. In this way, more gas could be promoted in Germany. “In 2021, an independent commission of experts of the Bundestag confirmed that the technology is responsible. The ban should fall,” said Lindner.
However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) only clearly rejected the fracking method again in December. Fracking has been banned in Germany since 2017. Scholz had compared the extraction of shale gas to a mirage: “When you get close to it, it vanishes into thin air.”
Fracking would cause difficulties in more densely populated Germany.
Jutta Paulus, Green MEP
Even more pronounced than in the SPD is the negative attitude towards the fracking method among the Greens. From the point of view of the Ministry of the Environment, led by Steffi Lemke (Greens), it would take years to build the infrastructure needed to extract shale gas.
The Green MEP Jutta Paulus also thinks Lindner’s initiative to change something about the high consumer prices by promoting shale gas is not enough. “The idea of being able to influence inflation rates over the next three years by lifting the ban on fracking is about as realistic as a commercial nuclear fusion reactor would be over the next decade,” she told the Tagesspiegel.
According to government reports, scientists in the USA made a breakthrough in the field of nuclear fusion last month. However, the commercial use of the technology is still a long way off.
The US is also seen as a pioneer in fracking technology. Paulus said: “A closer look at the fracking regions in the USA would also make it clear what difficulties would arise in Germany, which is much more densely populated.” It is therefore better to put all your energy into energy efficiency and renewables in Germany, she said.
The supply of gas for Germany this winter and especially next is considered critical. Due to the mild weather, the gas storage facilities in Germany have recently filled up again. The current fill level is 89.7 percent. At the beginning of February, according to the specifications of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the filling level must still be around 40 percent. The reason: the more gas is consumed during the current winter, the more difficult it will be to fill the storage tanks from next spring – this time without Russian imports.
The Federal Network Agency continues to criticize the fact that the savings target of 20 percent is still being missed in Germany. According to the agency, the temperature-adjusted gas consumption in the old year in the 50th and 51st calendar week was only 12.4 percent below the reference value of the last four years.
Against this background, the liberals could feel encouraged to reaffirm their demand for the fracking ban to be lifted at the forthcoming Epiphany meeting. Elsewhere, Lindner defused the potential for conflict contained in his advances at the turn of the year. The finance minister refrained from calling for an income tax cut, which he had raised a few days earlier. “As long as there is no new thinking among the coalition partners, I will concentrate on what can be achieved,” said Lindner.
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