is this pushing carbon down folks?
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Merkel's Nuclear-Power Plans Are Passed as Greens Cry 'Putsch'
2010-10-28 13:50:32.452 GMT
By Tony Czuczka
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel's plan to
prolong Germany's use of nuclear power cleared parliament after
a debate lasting more than six hours as the opposition pledged
to challenge the extension in court.
Greenpeace activists occupied the Berlin party headquarters
of Merkel's Christian Democrat Union in protest as the
government used its majority to steer a bill to let nuclear
plants run for as many as 14 years longer through the lower
house, or Bundestag. The debate overran its scheduled time by
more than four hours, delaying Merkel's departure for a European
Union summit in Brussels.
The deal with utilities E.ON AG and RWE AG, made as part of
the government's energy strategy, fulfills a pledge Merkel made
during last year's re-election campaign. Merkel's political
foes, buoyed by her plunge in opinion polls to historic lows,
say her push to enact the change without a vote in the
opposition-controlled upper house is unconstitutional.
"Chancellor Merkel, you talk of an energy revolution,"
the opposition Greens floor leader, Juergen Trittin, said in a
speech to the Bundestag before the vote today. "It's more like
a putsch."
The government plans amount to a repeal of a 2002 law,
passed by a coalition of Greens and Social Democrats under then
SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, that would shut down all
German nuclear plants by about 2022. Under the extension deal,
seven reactors built before 1980 will run eight years longer
than planned and 10 newer plants will run 14 years longer, for
an average extension of 12 years.
State Challenge
The Greens and Social Democrats today reiterated their
intention to challenge the government's nuclear plans at the
Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. Germany's 16 states
are represented in the upper chamber, the Bundesrat, and they
must be consulted on the policy change, Alexander Bonde, a
Greens lawmaker, said by phone. Two state governments are
already preparing a challenge, said Stefan Groenebaum, a
spokesman for the North Rhine-Westphalia state Economy Ministry.
Vattenfall AB, whose German unit joins E.ON, RWE and EnBW
Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG in operating Germany's 17 nuclear
plants, "assumes" the government will follow through on the
plan, Chief Executive Officer Oeystein Loeseth said today on a
conference call. He still sees "uncertainty" over whether the
plan will need to be submitted to the Bundesrat, he said.
E.ON AG rose 0.6 percent to 22.35 euros in Frankfurt
trading as of 11:58 a.m. local time, valuing the company at
about 44.7 billion euros. Smaller competitor RWE AG gained 1.4
percent to 51.44 euros. E.ON and RWE, Germany's two biggest
utilities, are still the worst performers this year among the 30
stocks in Germany's benchmark DAX index.
Legal opinion is split on whether Merkel can bypass the
Bundesrat, where she lost her majority after a state election
defeat in May deprived her of the necessary votes to ensure laws
are passed. The Social Democrats will in any case overturn
Merkel's plans if they regain office at elections in 2013, SPD
leader Sigmar Gabriel said.
Renewables Fund
Merkel has said she's acting within the law and aims to
build a "bridge" to renewable energy, helped by provisions
that levy 30 billion euros ($40 billion) on utilities over the
period of the extension.
"This is the most modern, environmentally friendly energy
policy ever to come before this house," Peter Altmaier, the CDU
parliamentary manager, told lawmakers.
As many as 100,000 protesters rallied against nuclear power
in Berlin last month, underscoring public dissatisfaction with
Merkel's policies as her coalition trails the opposition in
polls. Protesters planned to form a human chain past the
Chancellery in Berlin today to coincide with the vote.
The Christian Democrats fell one percentage point to 30
percent and her Free Democratic coalition partners rose one
point to 5 percent in a weekly Forsa poll published yesterday.
The coalition's 35 percent backing is more than 13 points
less than it won at last year's election. The Greens had 24
percent support and the Social Democrats 23 percent in the Forsa
poll, both unchanged. The Oct. 18-22 poll of 2,502 people has a
margin of error of as many as 2.5 percentage points.
For Related News and Information:
RWE peer product comparison: RWE GY <EQUITY> PPC <GO>
German power prices: ELGE <GO>
Top German stories: TOPG <GO>
E.ON debt distributions: EOAN GY <EQUITY> DDIS <GO>
E.ON's historical market cap: EOAN GY <EQUITY> G X 69 <GO>
RWE's profit per employee: RWE GY <EQUITY> FA10 <GO>
--With assistance from Patrick Donahue in Berlin and Nicholas
Comfort in Frankfurt. Editors: Alan Crawford, Eddie Buckle
