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Green Germany: Half A Million Families Sitting In The Dark [translation]
Die Welt ^ | 21 Feb 2012 | Philipp Mueller (tran.)

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: climatechange; climategate; climategate2; electricbills; electricity; failedgreen; germanyelectricity; globalwarming; globalwarminghoax
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Don't forget the following facts when reading this:

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?

1 posted on 02/23/2012 7:09:24 AM PST by AFPhys
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To: AFPhys

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?


2 posted on 02/23/2012 7:11:03 AM PST by AFPhys ((Praying for our troops, our citizens, that the Bible and Freedom become basis of the US law again))
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To: AFPhys

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.


3 posted on 02/23/2012 7:12:56 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Sometimes progressives find their scripture in the penumbra of sacred bathroom stall writings (Tzar))
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To: AFPhys

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.


4 posted on 02/23/2012 7:14:41 AM PST by tflabo (Truth or tyranny)
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To: AFPhys

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.


5 posted on 02/23/2012 7:18:42 AM PST by brownsfan (Aldous Huxley and Mike Judge were right.)
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To: AFPhys
Germany's economy is NOT suffering a recession now, and in fact is reasonably OK

When accounting tricks are used to hide the true numbers, then Germany is a great economy and growing ....

6 posted on 02/23/2012 7:18:52 AM PST by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: tflabo
Its criminal how much fuel costs.

"Under my administation prices for electricity will necessarilly skyrocket." B. Obama - 2008. A campaign promise kept.

Oops! Wrong country!

7 posted on 02/23/2012 7:19:36 AM PST by 17th Miss Regt
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To: AFPhys

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.


8 posted on 02/23/2012 7:20:17 AM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: tflabo

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.


9 posted on 02/23/2012 7:21:30 AM PST by JeanLM (Obama proves melanin is not enough)
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To: AFPhys

Shut down your nuclear plants and sit in the dark. That’s what they voted for.


10 posted on 02/23/2012 7:21:54 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: HiTech RedNeck
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.

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 ...

11 posted on 02/23/2012 7:22:02 AM PST by An.American.Expatriate (Here's my strategy on the War against Terrorism: We win, they lose. - with apologies to R.R.)
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To: AFPhys

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”.


12 posted on 02/23/2012 7:24:16 AM PST by Iron Munro ("Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight he'll just kill you." John Steinbeck)
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To: AFPhys
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.

13 posted on 02/23/2012 7:27:58 AM PST by Rashputin (Only Newt can defeat both the Fascist democrats and the Vichy GOP)
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To: AFPhys
A few other facts.

* Germany has a population of 81.4 million.
* Average household size in Germany (2008) is 2.2. So we are only talking about 1.6% of German households not having power.

This is manageable at the moment, but could break bad if there is any sort of economic disruption in Germany. Unfortunately Angela Merkel has shackled them to Greece economic disruption seems fairly likely. Push that number up to 5% of households and you will start getting riots.
14 posted on 02/23/2012 7:28:42 AM PST by GonzoGOP (There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
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To: GeronL

Liberals support rationing of commodities even when plentiful.
They see themselves as handing out rations based on “fairness.”


15 posted on 02/23/2012 7:29:21 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Beware the Sweater Vest)
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To: brownsfan

North Korea wins, here we go.

THey were so ahead of our times, indeed.


16 posted on 02/23/2012 7:29:54 AM PST by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security Whorocracy & hate:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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To: blueunicorn6

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


17 posted on 02/23/2012 7:31:15 AM PST by silverleaf (Funny how all the people who are for abortion are already born)
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To: AFPhys

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?


18 posted on 02/23/2012 7:31:57 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: AFPhys

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?


19 posted on 02/23/2012 7:32:09 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy
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To: blueunicorn6

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.


20 posted on 02/23/2012 7:32:38 AM PST by AFPhys ((Praying for our troops, our citizens, that the Bible and Freedom become basis of the US law again))
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