German Eco-Czars Threaten To Force Home Owners To Make Costly Energy-Saving Rennovations

German daily Die Welt here reported last month how the transition to renewable energy development in Europe, particularly Germany, has not been progressing well lately.

Offshore parks are being delayed, the expansion of the power grid is practically DOA and people are realizing that the energy the sun sends for free is actually awfully expensive and inefficient.

The regulatory system designed to steer society through an energy efficiency revolution isn’t working. As a result bureaucrats are getting frustrated as their targets look less attainable than ever. Failure of their grand project is something they refuse to allow. Rather than admitting that the whole idea is unworkable, they instead think that the measures haven’t been drastic enough. Die Welt writes:

It’s no wonder that environmental politicians are considering forcing people rather than waiting for them to volunteer. That’s why the EU Commission has proposed a directive that threatens power utilities with fines in order to get them to finance the energy saving measures of their customers. Also homeowners are once again in the cross-hairs of politicians. After all, homes are the biggest consumers of energy . Too few homeowners are thinking about replacing their heating systems or insulating their walls and attics.”

Hat tip: http://oekowatch.org.

So what do the EU politicians have in mind? They want to force homeowners to renovate their homes to make them more energy efficient. Never mind if it’s economical or not. The idea is to save energy, no matter the cost. Besides, European politicians believe homeowners are too stupid to come up with the right answer when it comes to making investment decisions.

The German government is now considering such a measure. For example, the law would force people to insulate their homes and replace their furnace if they decide to carry out larger scale renovation works.

But as Die Welt writes, such drastic measures that try to force certain behavior are already being tried in the State of Baden-Württemberg, which is attempting to force homeowners there to carry out comprehensive renovation works for energy efficiency. The result: homeowners are renovating less than before. Die Welt:

Even small works are being avoided now because otherwise the law of the state threatens to force a costly full renovation. The laws of the state have only led to strategies of dodging and avoiding and have proven to be counter-productive.”

Little wonder. Whenever the state intrudes this deep into private property and lives, things are sure to go awry. That the state now is contemplating laws that tell people how to run their own private property is a scary measure indeed. They only need to look back at what happened under previous dictatorial regimes, never mind Baden-Württemberg.

15 responses to “German Eco-Czars Threaten To Force Home Owners To Make Costly Energy-Saving Rennovations”

  1. DirkH

    “That’s why the EU Commission has proposed a directive that threatens power utilities with fines in order to get them to finance the energy saving measures of their customers.”

    Sounds like an arbitrary violation of property rights. EU looks more like a banana republic every day.

    O/T Spot the totalitarian:
    http://www.bettinaflitner.de/725.html

    1. DirkH

      Oops. Bigger rabbit hole than expected.

      Misereor, charity of the catholic church, is a co-founder of this:
      http://www.die-klima-allianz.de/
      They’re trying to destroy the German electricity supply by killing coal.
      See here.
      http://www.misereor.de/themen/klimawandel/klimafreundliche-entwicklung.html

      1. DirkH

        …more about Killing Coal. After successfully killing off nukes last spring, the Greens use their foot soldiers now against coal power plants.
        Foto of unwitting shocktroopers in the Kindergarden age with CO2-emitting torches; assembling to protest Datteln 4.
        http://www.derwesten.de/staedte/unser-vest/protest-gegen-eon-kraftwerk-id6469344.html
        Ironically, a third of the power from Datteln 4 has been ordered by Deutsche Bahn to run their trains. Why don’t the Greens demand that Deutsche Bahn use only Wind and Solar power for their trains? 🙂

        Datteln 4 would become the most modern and biggest coal power station in Germany with 1 GW, far more efficient than the plants it replaces.
        http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraftwerk_Datteln
        Since 2010, NRW is ruled by Red-Green. The government and the courts fight the project (using regulations like environmental impact studies; and climate change “impact”); and of course the small green foot soldiers.

    2. JuergenK

      It’s worse than that. A plan is in the making to force real estate owners to assume a subsequent mortgage with the gouvernment being the beneficary. Not long in the future we’ll all have to pay interests for money the banks gave to the gouvernment.
      A new form of a brutal tax.

  2. Bruce of Newcastle

    Next step, build a fence around the whole country to keep everyone in the green paradise.

  3. Paul Maynard

    One consequence of the obsession with insulation, especially retrofitted, is condensation. In 10 years time houses will be falling apart through rot.

    It also strikes me that ecohomes are resource heavy and often of poor construction although that is less likely to be a problem in Germany where construction standards are much higher than the UK.

    I love programmes like Grand Designs where ecohomes often sit in acres of land!

    Regards

    Paul

    1. Bernd Felsche

      Such is the fate of especially half-timbered houses in Germany. Many are rotting quickly after “renovation” incorporating (air-tight) insulation measures; having previously stood for centuries heated by wood and coal fires.

      The regulators don’t understand that that sort of structure has to “breathe”. In fact; the regulators _understand_ nothing; except implementing process.

  4. John F. Hultquist

    Before issuing any regulation, get a room full of ordinary folks and have politicians outline their intentions. Then ask, “What can go wrong with this plan?” For example, why not implement a tax on windows?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax

    So if a person wants to maintain their home why not make it totally uneconomical to do so. What can go wrong?

    1. Ulrich Elkmann

      What can go wrong? Technical innovation (at least in Victorian England – they even managed to scrap the Red Flag Act when horseless carriages proliferated – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotive_Acts): Plate glass made the building of large greenhouses economical.
      “There was a strong agitation in England in favour of the abolition of the tax during the winter of 1850–1851, and it was accordingly repealed on 24 July 1851, and a tax on inhabited houses substituted.”- which was EXACTLY the time the Crystal Palace was built – first draft in June ’50, foundations laid in October; Grand Opening on May 1, 1851
      http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Crystal_Palace_-_Queen_Victoria_opens_the_Great_Exhibition.jpg – don’t mention that schedule to any modern entrepreneur. (I’m also not sure if Kew Gardens was ever subject to the tax: it was a state project and so might have been exempt from it.)

  5. Pierre Gosselin: German Eco-Czars Threaten To Force Home Owners To Make Costly Energy-Saving Rennovations | JunkScience.com

    […] No Tricks Zone Share this:PrintEmailMoreStumbleUponTwitterFacebookDiggRedditLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. This entry was posted in Clean energy, Economics, Environmentalism, Green hell. Bookmark the permalink. ← EDITORIAL: Next time, sue the weatherman […]

  6. mwhite

    Does Germany have the equivalent of the UKs listed building system

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Listed_building

    “A listed building may not be demolished, extended or altered without special permission from the local planning authority”

    1. Bernd Felsche

      Even listed buildings are victims of the “renewable”, “energy-saving” measures.

      Consider that e.g. lead-based solder is allowed to be used in renewable-energy systems but has been banned from other consumer goods for several decades. And wind farms are set up within the scope of protected landscapes in Germany.

      You can, IIRC, put solar panels on a listed building in Germany, but can’t change the roof from the style of the original.

    2. DirkH

      Yes, we do. And we have public servants, Beamte, responsible for “development of the rural space”, who decide about how a village shall look like, and they might or might not list your building, which typically results in heavy losses in the value of your home and piece of ground as new owners wouldn’t be free anymore to demolish it. That’s one reason why I prefer not to own property at the moment; you don’t “own-own” it, to say it in Whoopi Goldberg style. Another one is of course the unpredictable dictatorial edicts emanating from Brussels and Berlin dictating how a home owner shall spend his money.

  7. Magnum

    J
    Cottonwool Britain
    Greenery 4:
    Seems like we are in for a similar bullying – as someone already mentioned what about the condensation? Who is going to pay, if they force the electricity companies, up goes the cost of electricity, no-one does anything for nothing.
    What is worse is that it is possible to have FREE electricity, but of course that means loss of taxes – ha ha!!

    Minister wants to wrap Britain in 8in of cladding | The Sunday Times

    BRITAIN’S suburbs are about to get an environmental makeover. Eight million homes from the Victorian, Edwardian and other periods could be clad with up to 8in of insulation under a government scheme to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

    The thick layer will save householders hundreds of pounds a year in energy bills, but will transform the appearance of homes. The insulation is topped with render that can be painted, sometimes in the style of the original brickwork or in a colour of the householder’s choice.

    The plan is being promoted by Greg Barker, the climate change minister…..

    1. DirkH

      This little green guy loves to build his caves in the styrofoam facades…
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose-ringed_Parakeet

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