Merkel, Utility Heads to Meet as Deadline on Extending Atomic Plants Nears
Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with the heads of E.ON AG and RWE AG, Germany’s two biggest utilities, as talks between government and industry on extending nuclear reactors’ operating lives near a self-imposed deadline.
Merkel will meet with the executives on Aug. 26 during a visit to the Emsland nuclear plant near Lingen in north-western Germany, which is co-owned by RWE and E.ON, government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin today.
Merkel is due to announce the government’s future energy strategy by the end of next month. Her attempts to overturn the phase-out of nuclear power by about 2022 agreed by a previous government are hampered by coalition divisions, legal obstacles and industry opposition to a planned 2.3 billion-euro ($3 billion) annual tax on nuclear operators regardless of an extension to atomic plant lifespans.
“We decisively reject” the levy, E.ON Chief Executive Officer Johannes Teyssen told today’s Bild newspaper in a joint interview with his counterparts at RWE, Vattenfall AB and EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG. Teyssen called for an extension of the lifespan of reactors by at least 15 years beyond 2022. RWE CEO Juergen Grossmann said the utilities proposed sharing the windfall profits from an extension 50-50 with the state.
Merkel is unlikely to make announcements on energy strategy at the Emsland plant, Seibert said at a regular government press conference, appealing to the industry to refrain from commenting while negotiations are ongoing.
“It’s not helpful during discussions to have any aggressive attitudes leaking out,” Seibert said, referring to a report in Spiegel magazine that utilities may shut down nuclear reactors early if the government proceeds with its plans for the tax on fuel elements.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble still expects the talks led by his ministry with the utilities to result in 2.3 billion euros in revenue per year for government coffers, Martin Kreienbaum, one of Schaeuble’s spokespeople, told the same press briefing.
An independent energy commission is set to give its policy recommendations on Aug. 27, and Merkel’s Cabinet will decide on the nuclear levy at a Sept. 1 meeting, the Finance Ministry said last week.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rainer Buergin in Berlin at rbuergin1@bloomberg.net
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