Germany Calls for Fracked Gas Production to Reduce Energy Prices
According to Clemens Fuest, head of the Munich Institute for Economic Research Ifo, “a decisive expansion of renewable energy sources is right, but not enough.”
Leading German economists have proposed concrete steps to reduce energy prices. Thus, Clemens Fuest, head of the Ifo Institute for Economic Research in Munich, advocated gas production in Germany by hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
“A decisive expansion of renewable energy is right, but not enough. Germany should position itself more broadly. This includes a return to nuclear power, research into new forms of energy such as fusion and shale gas in the country,” Fuest wrote in an article for the newspaper. Welt am Sonntag. Shale gas can only be produced by fracking.
In turn, Veronika Grimm, a member of the German government’s expert council for economic development, pointed out that in addition to expanding the use of renewable energy sources, importing large volumes of hydrogen is important.
“Companies will only invest in Germany if they can get access to hydrogen,” she said.
According to Michael Hüter, director of the Institute for German Economics (IW), uncertainty about future electricity prices has a fundamental impact on the attractiveness of Germany as a place to do business.
“The discrepancy between the entrepreneurial investment that is needed today and the future provision of cheap electricity threatens the industrial basis of our economy,” Hüter stressed.
Earlier, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (Social Democratic Party) opposed the production of natural gas in the country by hydraulic fracturing (fracking), calling such an idea a mirage. This position is shared by the “green” members of the German government. A number of German politicians, on the contrary, called for the development of fracking in light of high energy prices.
