Germany is denying an assertion made by former President Donald Trump through the presidential debate Tuesday in regards to the nation’s renewable power trade.
“You imagine in issues like we’re not going to frack, we’re not going to take fossil gas, we’re not going to do issues which are going to be sturdy, whether or not you prefer it or not,” Trump mentioned in his debate towards Vice President Kamala Harris. “Germany tried that, and inside one 12 months, they had been again to constructing regular power crops.”
However on Wednesday, Germany’s Federal International Workplace determined to situation a rebuttal, echoing the previous president’s language.
“Prefer it or not: Germany’s power system is totally operational, with greater than 50% renewables,” the Federal International Workplace shared on X. “And we’re shutting down – not constructing – coal & nuclear crops. Coal shall be off the grid by 2038 on the newest.”
The German International Workplace additionally poked at Trump for one more remark he made through the debate.
“PS: We additionally do not eat cats and canines,” it concluded, referring to Trump’s debunked declare that Haitian migrants had eaten pets in Springfield, Ohio. The city’s authorities have mentioned that there haven’t been credible stories about migrants focusing on pets.
“Contradiction with info and humor — that’s the proper reply to disinformation,” German State Minister Anna Lührmann added on Thursday about her authorities’s response. “As democrats, we are able to not permit ourselves to depart false statements uncommented.”
Local weather change and power insurance policies are raised incessantly throughout each candidates’ election campaigns. Trump additionally claimed that if Harris wins the election, fracking in Pennsylvania “will finish on day one.”
“Fossil gas shall be lifeless,” Trump mentioned. “We’ll return to windmills, and we’ll return to photo voltaic.”
Earlier than she turned vp, Harris, who was a senator representing California, pushed for climate-friendly insurance policies. “There isn’t any query I am in favor of banning fracking,” Harris mentioned in 2019. However as vp, she has modified course.
“I’ve not banned fracking as vp,” Harris instructed Trump. “My place is that now we have received to put money into numerous sources of power so we cut back our reliance on international oil.”
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, power prices in Germany have spiked as Berlin seeks alternate options to Russian power. The US exported over 200 million cubic toes of liquid pure fuel to Germany final 12 months. Russian pure fuel volumes within the German power market noticed a 30% decline in 2022.
“Sure, Germany is critical in regards to the power transition,” the German embassy in Washington mentioned in a put up on X. “Our power system is totally operational, with > 50% renewables. Coal shall be off the grid by 2038 on the newest – whereas we’re investing billions to create new alternatives in former coal areas.”
Germany shut down its final three nuclear energy crops final 12 months, because it plans to transition the vast majority of its power consumption to renewable power by 2050. However the nation nonetheless wants “further measures” to achieve its local weather targets, in accordance with the German Atmosphere Company.
As president, Trump criticized Berlin’s power coverage for relying closely on Russia. In 2019, he signed the Defending Europe’s Vitality Safety Act into legislation, which might sanction vessels collaborating within the development of the Nord Stream 2, an undersea pipeline constructed by Russia’s state-run power large Gazprom.
In Could 2021, the State Division waived beforehand imposed sanctions, however the waiver was terminated a day earlier than Russia invaded Ukraine. In September 2022, a sequence of explosions, first detected by Scandinavian authorities off the Danish island of Bornholm, ruptured the pipeline. Final month, German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian nationwide, whom they mentioned had resided in Poland, however he had left the nation.
The U.S. denied any involvement within the assault and condemned the sabotage towards the pipeline.
Throughout the debate, Trump nonetheless attacked the Biden administration over the pipeline. “Why does Biden go in and kill the Keystone pipeline and approve the one greatest deal that Russia has ever made, Nord Stream 2? As a result of they’re weak, they usually’re ineffective,” Trump mentioned, asking Harris about her administration’s international coverage.
