I keep my commitment: Fessenheim will be closed and will be closed completely
The 600 meter long train with six castors is to roll into an interim storage facility at the decommissioned nuclear power plant in Hesse. The arrival there is expected on Wednesday morning. Nuclear power opponents were on site in Nordenham and have announced protests along the possible routes to the south.The transport took the route via Hanover. According to their own statements, the federal police secured several railway lines in Lower Saxony and Hesse, but also in Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia. Several thousand federal police officers are involved in securing the route; service dogs, service horses and police helicopters are in action. In addition, forces from the respective state police are also deployed in the federal states.
A spokeswoman for the federal police said everything went smoothly and as planned by late Tuesday evening. In the past, the Castor transports were often accompanied by large protests with blockades of the tracks.
There is much criticism of the transport of the dangerous material. Environmentalists see shortcomings in the Biblis interim storage facility and safety deficits in the Castor containers. The Society for Interim Storage (BGZ), which is responsible for the storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste, rejects these concerns.
There was also criticism of the transport in view of the corona epidemic and a possible risk to the police officers deployed. "The health of everyone involved has the highest priority," said the head of operations. This applies both to the citizens who exercise their basic right to freedom of assembly and to the police on duty. Police Vice President Andres Sagehorn said that the Oldenburg Police Department had created a comprehensive hygiene concept based on the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute.
According to the federal government, Germany has to take back its nuclear waste processed abroad due to international obligations - from Sellafield as well as from the French plant La Hague.
Is the Jamaica Alliance really coming? According to a new poll, the CDU / CSU, FDP and Greens received a total of 53 percent of the vote.
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According to the current INSA opinion trend for the "Bild" newspaper (Tuesday), the CDU / CSU parties (37 percent) lose half a point. The Greens (7 percent) and FDP (9 percent), on the other hand, each gained half a point compared to the previous week. Together they would have 53 percent and could therefore replace the grand coalition. According to the survey, this would reach 61.5 percent.
The SPD and the Left each lose half a point
The SPD (24.5 percent) and the Left (10 percent) have also lost half a point compared to the previous week. The AfD (9.5 percent) won half a point.
SPD far behind: Union with a huge lead over SPDRed-red-green comes together to 41.5 percent, a traffic light from SPD, FDP and Greens reaches 40.5 percent, CDU / CSU and FDP reach 46 percent. A majority capable of governing is therefore not possible for these coalition options.
Before exploratory talks about a Jamaica coalition are emerging, the FDP and the Greens are initially aiming for two-way meetings between the parties involved.
That made FDP leader Christian Lindner and Green top candidate Katrin Göring-Eckardt clear in the newspaper "Bild am Sonntag". "It is important to us that we speak bilaterally first. So FDP and Union, FDP and Greens, Union and Greens," said Lindner, according to the preliminary report.
Goering-Eckardt expressed himself in similar words. At the same time, she emphasized that nothing concrete had been negotiated at these meetings. That then has to happen at the table with everyone involved. "The Greens will not take part in any backroom deals," emphasized Göring-Eckardt.
Opposition came from the CSU. "There can only be trusting talks if all four partners are sitting at the table," said state group leader Alexander Dobrindt on the same paper. "If the FDP and the Greens believe that they could make agreements in two-person rounds or distribute ministerial posts, they are mistaken." The FDP and the Greens had recently denied a press report, according to which six top representatives of the two parties were already discussing possible departmental cuts at an informal meeting.
According to Göring-Eckardt, plans are already underway for a meeting with the FDP. "We are preparing initial talks with Lindner," she said. Lindner said: "The Greens seem impatient and would like to meet immediately. I recommend waiting for the clarification process in the Union."
As a condition for a Jamaica coalition, the FDP leader called a "trend reversal in the burden of taxes and social security contributions". He also emphasized strengthening education and digitization as important for his party. Göring-Eckardt described more justice, good jobs and social security as the main concerns of the Greens.
According to an Insa poll for the "Bild" newspaper, the Union has to cope with a slight loss of support among voters.
The CDU / CSU come in just under a month before the federal election to 37 percent, one point less than in the previous week, according to the survey of more than 2000 citizens published on Tuesday. The FDP also gives one point to eight percent. The Greens lose half a point to 6.5 percent. The left was able to gain one point to ten percent. The SPD (24 percent) and AfD (10 percent) keep their values from the previous week.
Insa boss Hermann Binkert told the newspaper that the Union could lead the government as the strongest political force - either in a grand coalition with the SPD or in a Jamaica alliance with the FDP and the Greens. "The SPD remains only the junior role in the government or the opposition leadership."
Environmentalists consider the Fessenheim am Rhein nuclear power plant to be a ticking time bomb. The system could now go offline at the end of 2018.
On the occasion of the Paris climate summit, French President Emmanuel Macron expressly confirmed the announced closure of the controversial Fessenheim nuclear power plant on the border with Germany.
"I keep my commitment: Fessenheim will be closed and will be closed completely. I will not row back," said the summit host of the daily newspaper "Le Monde". Macron did not comment on a shutdown date for Fessenheim in the interview.
The Fessenheim nuclear power plant on the French side of the Rhine: The plant is always the target of environmental activists, as here in March 2014. (Source: Patrick Seeger / dpa)
Macron did not rule out the closure of other power plants - but such a step should not increase the emission of climate-damaging greenhouse gases.
Germany and environmentalists have long viewed the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in Alsace as a safety problem and are calling for it to be shut down. The previous government in France had sealed the closure in April by decree - but Fessenheim is only supposed to close when a new nuclear reactor in Flamanville on the English Channel goes online. This could be completed by the end of 2018.
Consumers will have to pay more to support electricity from wind and solar power in the next year. The so-called green electricity surcharge will rise from the current 6.35 cents to 6.88 cents per kilowatt hour, announced the transmission system operators 50Hertz, Amprion, Tennet and TransnetBW.
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Consumers pay the EEG surcharge through their electricity bill. It is calculated as the difference between the price that electricity producers get for their electricity and the guaranteed purchase prices for green electricity. The lower the market price that energy companies have to pay, the higher the levy.
It is difficult to calculate what the increase in the levy actually means for households in the end. It depends on whether the energy companies pass on falling electricity prices to customers.
After a year with practically no increases, millions of households are seeing a noticeable increase in electricity prices at the beginning of 2017. This was the result of nationwide comparisons between the Check24 and Verivox price portals.
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The electricity companies have to announce price increases six weeks in advance.
Increases of four to five percent
208 utilities - almost every fourth provider - had announced increases by an average of 3.5 percent by the reporting date, said Check24 managing director Energie Oliver Bohr. That corresponds to around 50 euros a year. Overall, he expects electricity price increases of four to five percent for 2017. The Verivox portal even came to 250 providers with increases at the beginning of the year by an average of 3.5 percent.
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Second price wave expected in spring
The four largest suppliers RWE / Innogy, Eon, EnBW and Vattenfall are still holding back in their home markets of Hamburg and Berlin and want to keep prices stable over the turn of the year, as spokespersons said. But you could follow suit later this year. "In the past, we have seen that many providers initially stand still at the turn of the year, but later follow suit with price increases," says Jan Lengerke, member of the Verivox management team. "That's why we expect a second wave of prices in spring 2017 too."
Network charges as the biggest cost driver
According to experts, the reason for the increases is not the - still very low - electricity procurement prices on the electricity exchange. They even fell to year-long lows in the first half of 2016. On the other hand, the green electricity surcharge, which will grow by 8.3 percent to 6.88 cents per kilowatt hour in 2017, and the costs for the electricity grids will be significantly more expensive. Both items together account for around half of the electricity price.
"The network charges are the biggest cost driver in electricity prices," says Gero Lücking, managing director of the energy industry at the green electricity provider Lichtblick. "Because the network charges in most regions of Germany will rise again significantly in 2017, we expect higher electricity prices across the board." Lücking accuses the electricity companies and municipal utilities of collecting excessive returns for their electricity networks.
With the EEG surcharge and network charges, electricity customers also pay heavily for the energy transition. According to the Federal Network Agency, the remuneration for renewable power plants from the EEG levy alone is estimated at 29.5 billion in 2017, compared to just under five billion euros in revenue for this electricity on the market.
The network costs not only cover the construction of new lines and maintenance of existing networks, the customers also pay for interventions by the network manager due to the strong fluctuations in wind and solar production. This includes, above all, the chargeable shutdown of wind turbines when the existing lines can no longer transport their electricity, or the use of reserve power plants in the event of regional undersupply or oversupply. The costs for this are growing rapidly and are currently around one billion euros a year.
The unequal distribution of network costs is causing political explosions: the network charges are growing particularly rapidly in rural areas, in the east and in Bavaria - wherever a particularly large number of wind and solar energy systems have to be built and connected - while the west with its modern power lines comparatively fewer renewable power plants pay less on top.
Consumers have special right of termination
The transmission system operator Tennet, which is responsible for northern Germany and Bavaria, announced a massive increase in its network charges by 80 percent at the end of September - a bang.
In the west, on the other hand, the Dortmund network company Amprion is only calculating with comparatively moderate growth rates of around ten percent for 2017. Energy experts have therefore been calling for nationwide network fees for a long time, and the federal government is planning a corresponding law.
Suppliers lower prices: gas as cheap as it was last ten years ago EEG surcharge increases: green electricity will be more expensive from 2017When electricity prices rise, consumers can use a special right of termination. After all, electricity household customers now have the choice between an average of around 100 different providers, depending on the region.
There is another major bird flu outbreak in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. As the district of Mecklenburg Lake District announced on Wednesday, a farm in Krümmel south of Röbel with tens of thousands of laying hens is affected. The avian influenza virus H5N8 was found there. According to current knowledge, around 29,000 laying hens must be killed and disposed of. Poultry farmers in neighboring Brandenburg are also affected by the official restrictions such as a smaller restricted area and a larger observation area within a radius of around ten kilometers.
Poultry, meat and eggs may not be transported in or out of these restricted areas. There are 23 other poultry holdings in the restricted area. More than 600,000 chickens and other poultry are kept within a ten-kilometer radius, the observation area. All of these animals would now have to implement strict hygiene requirements in the stable and the owners. the district had issued a general decree.
How the virus got into the population is still unclear. In the northeast there were already several bird flu cases in November, in which more than 100,000 chickens, ducks and geese died or had to be killed and disposed of.