“Gabriel plans new discounts for companies – at the expense of small consumers”

The federal economy ministry proposes to lower the threshold for energy-intensive industries to be eligible for a reduced renewables surcharge, writes Spiegel Online. With this proposed adjustment to the reform of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), reported by Süddeutsche Zeitung two weeks ago, energy intensive industries that are using more than 14 percent of their added value for electricity will pay only 20 percent of the renewables surcharge on the power they buy. The threshold is currently 17 percent. This could raise the number of eligible companies by the hundreds, according to the proposal seen by Spiegel Online. “The cost would be unloaded on all other consumers, affected would be mostly households and small companies,” writes Spiegel Online.

Read the article in German here.