Showing posts with label Sahra Wagenknecht. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sahra Wagenknecht. Show all posts

Sunday, September 29, 2024

SARHA WAGENKNECHT: The USA, in particular, has seen our energy price crisis as an opportunity and has set up a huge subsidy program for themselves with the Inflation Reduction Act, 2022.

from Bundestag member, Sahra Wagenknecht

00:00. Cheap gas from Russia with long-term supply contracts has been an important reason for Germany's economic success for decades.  With the outbreak of the war, the suspension of ineffective, nonsensical sanctions against Russia, which, however, have greatly damaged us, and the explosion of the pipelines [2022], gas, and thus all energy costs, have risen steeply.  Even if the Greens like to claim other things, the electricity prices for an average household are still around 36% above the 2019 level.  For large-scale consumers in the industry, the electricity prices are even 83% above the 2019 prices.  This means a massive location and that's a problem for all of us.  Instead of cheap gas from the pipeline, we are now buying expensive liquid gas from the USA, or from such exemplary democracies as Qatar  However, this LNG, in other words, liquid gas, is not only significantly more expensive but also significantly more environmentally harmful because it first has to be transported around the world by heavy oil-powered tankers until it arrives [in Germany].  The Greens obviously have no problem with that and a fifth of the industrial value-added products in Germany are now massively endangered.

01:24. The industry prefers to invest in foreign countries or relocate production entirely like China or the USA.  The USA, in particular, has seen our energy price crisis as an opportunity and has set up a huge subsidy program for themselves with the Inflation Reduction Act, 2022.  This promotes their own economy and should encourage European Industries to emigrate to the USA with success.  More than half of large industrial companies are already considering relocating their production abroad, and we have to spend more money on energy and have less money in our pockets for a restaurant visit or just for a stroll through the city center.  More than a fifth of us can no longer afford a one-week holiday a year.  Countless people are at risk of losing their jobs, and the German economy is at risk of losing its engine.