Posted on 02/23/2012 7:09:16 AM PST by AFPhys
Many households in Germany are no longer able to pay their electricity bills. As a result, around half a million households are sitting in the dark.
The sharp price increases for electricity and gas is leading to serious payment problems for more and more consumers – even to dark apartments. Because of unpaid bills an estimated 600,000 households in Germany had their power cut off in 2010, said the consumer watch dog Verbraucherzentrale Nordrhein-Westfalen which is based in Düsseldorf. This estimate is based on a survey of local energy providers in Germany’s most populous state.
"Price increases of around 15 percent for electricity and gas in the past two years have made energy for many households unaffordable", said CEO Klaus Mueller. The increasing fuel poverty is alarming. What is more, ever tighter household budgets and regularly lacking competence in keeping personal finances in check are turning claims arising from unpaid energy bills quickly into an insurmountable cost trap.
Three-quarters of the 58 companies that responded to questions from the NRW consumer group reported growing problems related to energy debt and power outages. In 2010, the surveyed utilities in North Rhine-Westphalia alone sent out three million reminders for unpaid electricity bill. They issued 340,000 blocking threats and cut off power to 62,000 customers.
According to extrapolations by consumer protection groups, power has been cut off to about 120,000 households in NRW alone and to about 600,000 households nationwide. The estimates of the energy companies are consistent with the experience of the consumer advocates. A spokeswoman from the NRW consumer watch dog added that their consumer advice increasingly focuses on the question of how to comply with payment obligations towards energy suppliers.
Germany is easily the strongest economy in Europe.
Germany's economy is NOT suffering a recession now, and in fact is reasonably OK
.
What should the German people expect from their "green" electricity generation in the coming years when their economy is cyclically weak?
If this is going on in the “strong” “green” economy, what is going to happen to those who are weak... indeed, what is occurring now?
You’d think Germany would be smarter than this, but maybe all the money they’ve been squandering on trying to keep Greece afloat was money they could have spent on better and more economical electric service at home. This is not going to sit well with the average German.
If we can ever develop massive power generation say from hydrogen extracted from H20 we can tell those fat OPEC sheiks to go pee in the sand. Its criminal how much fuel costs.
Let them eat their oil instead.
Green is the new red.
The commies love this. They will be happy when people everywhere live in mud huts, and survive on berries and other assorted wild plants.
When accounting tricks are used to hide the true numbers, then Germany is a great economy and growing ....
"Under my administation prices for electricity will necessarilly skyrocket." B. Obama - 2008. A campaign promise kept.
Oops! Wrong country!
That is exactly the kind of thing leftists want. They want the human race t go back to the stoneage, except for themselves of course.
So where are we going to get the energy to seperate hydrogen from oxygen? Where are we going to store the hydrogen? This not a solution.
Shut down your nuclear plants and sit in the dark. That’s what they voted for.
You'd think that Germany knows exactly what it is doing, just as it always has.
This is not going to sit well with the average German.
The average German has long ago learned to accept that which the government deigns to give them. It's that famed German Discipline ...
This is the Obama dream for Americans.
Once he gets the price of gasoline and electricity high enough consumption will drop significantly.
Then he will claim he has reduced reliance on petroleum and coal, reduced pollution and turned America “Green”.
US fascist democrats are more experienced liars and have worked to keep the economy in disaster mode in order hide the real effects of their "green" policies.Like their Nazi heroes in the thirties, they had a patsy to blame the economy on in hopes of having everyone focus on the patsy rather than the fact that the government is the real problem. That's what the whole "Occupy" mess is about, a failed attempt by the Fascists to have people chase the boogieman they've singled out rather than looking at the facts.
They have another boogieman in the wings, though, one they can blame for all sorts of economic and social ills. Before summer, they'll have protests against their new enemy and patsy.
Liberals support rationing of commodities even when plentiful.
They see themselves as handing out rations based on “fairness.”
North Korea wins, here we go.
THey were so ahead of our times, indeed.
Soon the Greeks can send the Germans tons of drachmas to burn to stay warm
Seriously 600,000 German households without power?????
Back to the dark ages
It’s also important to note that Frau Merkel just recently decided that Germany didn’t need nuclear power any more.
So let’s see what German’s think: Are you more concerned about the *potential* for man made global warming in a few hundred years, maybe; or about freezing to death in the dark right now?
It’s also important to note that Frau Merkel just recently decided that Germany didn’t need nuclear power any more.
So let’s see what Germans think: Are you more concerned about the *potential* for man made global warming in a few hundred years, maybe; or about freezing to death in the dark right now?
Not only have they shut down (I believe) six nukes, Russia has decided they are not able to export natural gas to them now since it is needed in Russia.
Oh, but the Germans have all those windmills, right?
This all said, I am not clear that there are any electricity “shortages” in Germany that account for the darkness - it appears instead that the price of electricity has risen so much that many homes can no longer afford it.
Just as with the price of gasoline, the cure for this is more supply - but the dolts who believe in socialism worldwide can’t get it through their thick heads that working on the supply problem requires thinking ahead, and compensating people who do that service handsomely. They would rather freeze in the dark, I guess.
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