Government advisers speak out against industrial electricity prices

Berlin Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) is encountering further resistance with his concept for a state-subsidized industrial electricity price. Now the Scientific Advisory Board at the Ministry of Finance is also speaking out against it.

“In times of tight finances and in view of the necessary effort to expand renewable energies, we advise against the introduction of an industrial electricity tariff,” says a statement by the committee that is available to the Handelsblatt. Well-known economists sit on the advisory board, it is independent.

The committee is reacting to a suggestion by Habeck. According to this, companies that can demonstrate a certain energy and competition intensity should only have to pay six cents per kilowatt hour of electricity by 2030 for 80 percent of their historical electricity consumption. The state aid would have a volume of up to 30 billion euros.

However, the economists see the danger that “necessary structural adjustment processes will not take place”. You are therefore suggesting that the government consider completely abolishing the electricity tax.