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Stuttgart (dpa) - Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann has announced a significant reduction in high electricity prices in the event of a green government participation in the federal government.

"We will certainly, if we win the federal election, develop models to further reduce electricity prices relevant," said the Green politician of the German press agency dpa in Stuttgart.

“Since more and more electricity is being electrified and more and more comes from renewable energies, it makes no sense to charge the price of electricity with such high taxes as we have today.

That has to change fundamentally. "

Kretschmann named two adjusting screws: "We should, for example, abolish the electricity tax."

The loss of six to seven billion euros would have to be financed, for example by adjusting the CO2 price.

The electricity tax is usually levied by the energy supplier, who can then pass it on to the consumer.

The Green politician also said that the EEG surcharge must also be further reduced.

Consumers pay the levy for promoting green electricity with their electricity bill.

It is 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour.

A four-person household with a consumption of 4,000 kilowatt hours per year currently pays around 260 euros.

Ten years after the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, Japan, and the accelerated energy transition in Germany, the only Green Prime Minister declared that the switch was “indeed expensive, and the EEG surcharge also increased electricity prices”.

But they are now in the process of lowering electricity prices again.

«I would like to remind you of the CO2 pricing that was decided.

A good part of the income goes into stabilization and then also into lowering electricity prices.

But there is still more to it. "

Sellers of the fossil fuels heating oil, natural gas, gasoline and diesel have had to pay a CO2 price since the beginning of 2021.

Some companies are expected to pass their additional costs on to consumers.

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Kretschmann stated that the Renewable Energy Sources Act had become "overly complex" over the years.

"Now it is the case that if the electricity prices fall on the exchange, then the levy increases, which is of course a nonsensical construction."

You have to get away from that - “without, however, slowing down the expansion of renewables and giving up the priority of feeding renewable energies into the power grid”.

The production of wind energy is now cheaper than coal electricity or nuclear electricity from new power plants.

The Green politician recalled that the Fukushima disaster on March 11, 2011 was a “deep shock”.

«The exit was made because of a risk situation and not for economic reasons.

This must not be forgotten."

The high electricity prices would also have led to an “efficiency boost”.

“You can see that in our refrigerators, for example.

The industry was trimmed for efficiency. "

It is true that the USA, for example, has significantly lower electricity prices in the household sector.

"But they use on average three times as much as a German household."

The Americans would have missed out on efficiency strategies because of the cheap electricity.

Shortly after the nuclear disaster in Japan, Kretschmann became Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg - next Sunday the 72-year-old will again run as the top Green candidate and, according to surveys, has good chances of winning.

At that time he replaced the CDU man Stefan Mappus, who before the accident in Fukushima had been vehemently advocating an extension of the running times of the German reactors.

The Green now recalled that it had been a great shock that something like this could happen in a “first-class high-tech country” like Japan.

"You noticed that most clearly with the Chancellor: Chernobyl assigned her to the dilettantism in dealing with technology in communism."

After Fukushima, she then turned things around and initiated the nuclear phase-out.

"That's when you noticed the scientist in her."

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210310-99-758458 / 2