The gas price brake is just tinkering with the symptoms

The Gas Commission’s proposals reveal two fundamental problems that the state cannot subsidize away, even with 90 billion euros or even 200 billion euros in the end. On the one hand, the dramatic supply shortage of natural gas will remain a problem for years, not just until spring 2024.

In addition, there is still no even remotely satisfactory way of distributing state aid fairly in the fight against the energy price crisis. The problem has been known for years.

The drastic supply shortage resulting from the Russian supply freeze has not disappeared in a year, two or three years. The order of the day is therefore clear: it must be about saving gas and at the same time opening up new sources of supply for gas.

Saving still works more poorly than right. The industry has submitted. Partly targeted and structured, partly out of sheer necessity. It is therefore all the more annoying that there are still more gas-fired power plants running than absolutely necessary.