Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
crises of 1973 and 1979, which had shocked the industrial
nations and highlighted Germany's need to become less dependent
on energy imports; the anti-nuclear movement's demonstrations
in the 1970s and 1980s, which ultimately led to the founding of
the Green Party; the German government's 1980 commission of
inquiry on the use of nuclear energy; the aftermath of the 1986
nuclear accident in Chernobyl and the Labour Party's (SPD)
resolution that same year to phase out nuclear energy within the
space of a decade; the collapse of the German Democratic Republic
and the subsequent integration of that state into the Federal
Republic of Germany.
The outstanding contribution made by the extremely well-
organised South German hydroelectric power industry in coopera-
tion with the region's forest and sawmill owners—and above all
their parliamentary representative at the time, the Conservative
MP Dr Engelsberger (CSU)—deserve special mention at this point.
However, had it not been for Hermann Scheer, one of the most
important figures in the field of renewable energy policies, this
multi-party parliamentary initiative would never have materialised,
let alone been so successful—circumventing, as it did, the influential
party whips in the process! It was he
who had founded the solar
energy association EUROSOLAR (The European Association for
Renewable Energy) in 1988, in defiance of the unambiguous
objectives of the powerful German Mining and Energy Workers'
Union lobby within his own party.
EUROSOLAR was one of the
first to actively push for the 100% replacement of fossil and
nuclear energy by renewable energy sources.
We must bear in mind that, given the existence of the
unrelenting three-line whip (obligation to take the party line), any
politician who dared to “take a chance on more democracy” —to
quote Willy Brandt's famous expression from the year 1969—would
find himself accused of high treason. Yet this “treason” is exactly
what Hermann Scheer had organised.
The “Inspector General
for Water and Energy”, a constitutional relic dating back to
29 July 1941, but nevertheless still valid to this day
—
that is,
the “Führer” principle
1
now found itself jeopardised to a high
degree by the more contemporary and diametrically opposed
principle of democracy.
—
This was a strategically skilful move at a
1
Energie und Führerprinzip, http://www.ulrich-jochimsen.de/EnergieFuehrer-
footnote 3).
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