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Dusseldorf (dts news agency) – The new president of the district council of North Rhine-Westphalia, Olaf Gericke (CDU), is confident that the districts will approve new wind turbines much faster in the future than before. The reasons for the previously long procedures were not due to the approval authorities: “It was about environmental impact assessments, species protection reports, citizen participation, and 75 percent of the wind turbines were complained about. Now the weighing of goods is becoming easier because the federal government has determined that the importance wind power is strengthened compared to other concerns,” he told the “Rheinische Post” (Friday edition).
On the finding that there will probably continue to be lawsuits, he said: “There needs to be a cultural change. We need a reasonable average in terms of citizen participation, species protection, environmental compatibility.” Some would want to “complain endlessly about everything,” said the North Rhine-Westphalia district president. “But then we remain too slow.” When it comes to generating energy through photovoltaics, he sees the big cities as having a duty. “It’s unacceptable that large halls and walls remain unused and that we are now paving our valuable arable land without stopping,” says Gericke.
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