Leading “Energy Expert” Frustrated That Germans Are More Scared Of Renewable Energy Than Climate Change

UPDATE: Yesterday I left 2 regular comments at Kemfert’s Facebook site, but they have both since disappeared. Obviously she is not open to other views – we’re so surprised.

Paul Hockenos at the European Energy Review (EER) reports that “energy expert” Dr. Claudia_Kemfert, Director of the Energy, Transportation, and Environment Unit at the prestigious Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (German Institute for Economic Research) in Berlin “has had enough of the ‘Energiewende-bashing’ that she feels has stymied the progress of the country’s energy transition and sullied its reputation.”

Kemfert_Facebook

Dr. Claudia Kemfert of the German Institute for Economic Research frets over exposed ills of “green” energies. Photo source: Facebook/Claudia-Kemfert.

Energiewende is the German term coined for the country’s transition away from nuclear and fossil fuels and over to renewable energies.

Over the last months the gruesome details of the reality of green energies have surfaced. Environment Minister Peter Altmaier, for example, recently informed the public that the transformation over to green energy would cost Germany 1 trillion euros by 2039 (all for a theoretical global warming prevention of a few hundredths of a degree Celsius by the year 2100).

Moreover, renewable energies such as wind and sun have proven to be wildly fluctuating, unreliable sources whose lifetimes are estimated to be only half of what manufacturers had promised.

Kemfert, however, remains obstinate and closed-minded, and doesn’t want to hear any of it. EER writes that she “has set out to explode the myths and lies that are being spread by Energiewende-sceptics“. Kemfert is quoted saying (my emphasis):

When these myths are repeated again and again, they sink in. Not so long ago Germans were extremely concerned about climate change and the dangers of nuclear power. Now they’re scared of the Energiewende.”

As Germany suffers through a record fifth colder-than-normal winter in a row and global mean temperature stalling for 15 years, Germans are having serious doubts about catastrophic warming.

Also 600,000 poor families having their power turned off every year because they can no longer pay skyrocketing electric bills represents a real present danger, and not some year 2100 computer scenario.

Kemfert, unfortunately, appears unaware of these realities, and insists we deny them and simply have faith that wind and sun are the way to go.

 

25 responses to “Leading “Energy Expert” Frustrated That Germans Are More Scared Of Renewable Energy Than Climate Change”

  1. DirkH

    The DIW is a joke. If Krugman were European he’d work for them. But it’s a good sign that they’re bashing renewable energy critics. It means we’re over the target.

  2. Walter Schneider

    My first reaction, when I read Dr. Claudia Kemfert’s dismissal of people’s bad experiences with the German renewable energy fiasco, was, she is a young thing and for that reason doesn’t know better. However, then I found out that she is at least 45 years old (born 1968).

    So, it is obvious that not only is it likely that her image is stuck in the past, but her mind is apparently as well, and reality has passed her by. It’s hard to believe, but it’s true. She is an economist and apparently hopes to be a leading one. Let’s hope not…It seems that what we have here is the Peter Principle at work. ( http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Kemfert )

    1. DirkH

      I think she’s made a career of giving Eurocrats and Berlin technocrats excuses for raising taxes. A simple opportunist; not actually stupid; rather successful. One of many parasites; a scientist stand-in; a shill giving politics the honorable veneer of science (which gets more and more besmirched though as the warmist shills like her continue their dirty deed).

      1. D. Matteson

        You have to admit that she is much better looking than other “simple opportunist[s]” and “shill[s] giving politics the honorable veneer of science”, like John Kerry.

      2. DirkH

        Kerry? Is he a an academic? Holdren and Chu come to mind. Even though Holdren might actually be clinically insane.

  3. thebiggreenlie

    Ontario, Canada is hosting a Feed in Tariff conference in April where a German trade group will be attending along with many other green scammers trying to suck more $$$ out our already near bankrupt economy.

    This post of yours will not be welcome inside this gathering!

    We will try and make them as “unwelcome” as possible!

  4. Ed Caryl

    How can someone with a Doctorate in Economics be so ignorant of basic economics? If you decrease the supply of something, or something becomes more expensive to produce, for any reason, the price goes up. If the price goes up, fewer people can buy it. When I took Economics 101, the professor taught that the first week. If the thing that people can no longer afford is the energy to keep warm, they freeze to death. If it is fuel to travel they can’t get to work. If they spend all their money on fuel or energy, they can’t afford to eat. The basic thing that drives an economy is the price of energy. Dr. Kemfert needs to revisit these basics.

  5. Bengt Abelsson

    Energiewende = Energiewände = Energieende

  6. Tege Tornvall

    Apparently, the lady is a Doctor. But in what? How? When? Where? Why?

  7. Claudia Kemfert's mom

    Dr. Claudia Kemfert belongs in a German Institute for the [-snip].

  8. R. Specht

    Ah!
    Frau Dr. Kempfert.

    It so happens that I Googled her before and know therefore that she is a member of the Club of Rome.
    See here: http://www.clubofrome.de/sup2011/dl-12-kemfert.pdf
    She is obviously part of a network she does not want to annoy. Or she is a real believer.
    Either way – she is an activist not a scientist.

    Unfortunately the fact that she is part of this cabal is not really discussed in the “news” …
    But what else is new …

  9. Ike

    ot/ any infos about EIKE?

  10. Mindert Eiting

    Pierre, Facebook is for faces. You may leave your comments at Twitter. Mann is years in front of you.

  11. Bernd Felsche

    Re your Update:
    Any chance of you publishing the relevant FB comments here?

  12. Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup | Watts Up With That?
  13. Ulrich Elkmann

    Frau Doktor Claudia gets into high gear “reviewing” (i.e. denouncing) Andreas Moeller’s new book on “Green Conscience”: http://www.sonnenseite.com/Buch-Tipps,Moellers+Gewissen++,34,a24873.html – “Er selbst entlarvt sich dabei als Energiewende-Gegner” (“he reveals himself as an enemy of the e…-turn”; “enemy” seems a more fitting term than “opponent”, since she employs verbatim the jargon communist politcommisars used to use). Of course this traitor to The Cause is revealed to have vested hidden interests; whereas those in the know are reminded of the “depletion of natural resources” & the party line on Fukushima.

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