German Government to Delay Energy Policy Regulation by Weeks, FTD Reports

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government will move parliamentary votes on the country’s energy policy to the beginning of July from mid-June because lawmakers need more time to think about the matter, Financial Times Deutschland reported.

Laws on a timetable for closing down all nuclear power plants, the expansion of electricity grid power lines and the promotion of renewable energies need more time, Gerda Hasselfeldt, who chairs the group of Christian Social Union lawmakers in parliament, told the newspaper.

The decision creates a gap between the end of a three-month moratorium on a planned nuclear-power plant operating extension imposed by Merkel that expires on June 17 and new rules for the country’s power companies, the newspaper said.

Hasselfeldt said the government will talk to utilities and the opposition Social Democrats and the Greens to establish a consensus on energy policy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rainer Buergin in Berlin at rbuergin1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net