Merkel’s Cabinet Aids Troubled Coal Regions Days Before Election
Merkel’s Cabinet Aids Troubled Coal Regions Days Before Election
(Bloomberg) -- Days before crucial elections in states impacted by Germany’s shift away from coal, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet approved a draft law that would distribute massive spending for the ailing communities.
The draft law presented by the Economy Ministry regulates how to disburse funds to areas hardest hit by the shrinking coal industry. In May, Merkel’s cabinet approved 40 billion euros ($44 billion) in financing over the next two decades.
The cabinet approval comes days before Sept. 1 elections in Brandenburg and Saxony, two eastern German states where the shift away from chimney-stack economies has become a heated campaign issue. Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc and Germany’s Social Democrats are struggling to fend off a political insurgency by the far-right Alternative for Germany, which has capitalized on strong opposition there to the government’s shift away from fossil fuels.
Merkel’s government in February formalized Germany’s exit from coal by 2038 in a bid to wean Europe’s biggest economy off carbon-based fuels as it embraces renewable energy. The announcement came with a promise to compensate utilities and cushion the blow in lignite and hard-coal centers in Germany’s east and on the Rhine River in the west. As many as 60,000 jobs are linked to coal mining and power generation.
To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Raymond Colitt, Chris Reiter
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