Economy Criticism of the GEG
Government paid external consultants millions for the heating law
Status: 01:07 | Reading time: 3 minutes
Subcontracts for the GEG went to the Öko-Institut, among others
Quelle: picture alliance / CHROMORANGE
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In autumn 2021, the federal government commissioned the Heidelberg Institute for Energy and Environmental Research to analyze, evaluate and develop proposals for the Building Energy Act and paid a high tax amount for this. The left criticizes the fees for “botched” projects.
The federal government also had the controversial draft of the Building Energy Act (GEG) prepared by external consultants. This emerges from the government’s response to a question from the parliamentary group leader of the left in the Bundestag, Dietmar Bartsch. The letter from the State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Philipp Nimmermann, is available to WELT AM SONNTAG.
Accordingly, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research Heidelberg (Ifeu) was entrusted with the “analysis, evaluation and development of proposals for the further development of requirements in the Building Energy Act” in autumn 2021. The assignment for the report comprised three “work packages” with 19 “sub-work packages” for which other institutes were involved.
Subcontracts went to the Öko-Institut, the German Energy Agency, the Environmental Energy Law Foundation and Econsult, among others. “The fixed price for all work packages of the report, including the optional work packages to be ordered separately, is a total of 1,809,695 euros net plus VAT,” said Nimmermann.
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“It is curious how many external third parties advised the federal government on the drafting of the heating law at taxpayer expense and that this botch could then come of it,” Bartsch commented on the process. “Possibly something was drummed into the Habeck Ministry.”
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It is “remarkable that none of the experts indicated that municipal heating planning should first be carried out, as Die Linke suggested in mid-April,” said Bartsch.
One of the main points of criticism of the original law was that homeowners should be obliged to install climate-friendly but expensive heating technology from the beginning of 2024 without knowing the municipal plans for heating networks.
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The requirement to use heating systems with at least 65 percent green energy from 2025 was already included in the coalition agreement between the traffic light parties. Although this also provided for “comprehensive municipal heating planning”, it did not set any timetable for this.
Ifeu Managing Director Martin Pehnt rejected Bartsch’s accusation. The basic concept of the second GEG amendment “always considered possible municipal heating planning and thus went beyond the coalition agreement, which provided for ‘blunt compliance’ with 65 percent renewables for every newly installed heating system,” he explained when asked. The first GEG draft was already geared towards “interlocking” with municipal heat planning.
A lack of municipal heat planning was already an issue 20 years ago
Pehnt referred to the long transition periods in the event that a heating network is expected or the option of community building networks as well as the use of hydrogen and biomethane. Institutes such as Ifeu had already pointed out to politicians the need for municipal heating planning based on the Scandinavian model in the early 2000s. “It was a major omission in heat policy before 2021 not to have addressed this,” said Pehnt. “Even in the coalition agreement of the traffic lights – apparently consciously – there was no mention of a mandatory, but only of a comprehensive heat planning.”
Left-wing politician Bartsch still considers the heating law to be “unthought-out and dubious”. The fact that the traffic light wanted to pass the GEG unchanged at the beginning of September was “an affront to the Federal Constitutional Court and the Bundestag”. “One lesson for the future should be,” explained Bartsch, “that the influence of external third parties on laws is radically reduced.”
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