Energy law

[The Staudinger power plant in Grosskrotzenburg, east of Frankfurt © Alex Kraus/Bloomberg]

The piece at reference 1 caught my eye this morning. The bottom line, albeit from the German Minister of Finance, seems to be that Germany is managing its energy crisis. But, confused by talk of price brakes, I asked Google who turned up a couple more pieces from Freshfields, the big London lawyers, references 2 and 3. Where the bottom line seems to be that the lawyers will do OK. Plenty of pickings for them from energy crises - and not that unreasonably, given that the sums of money involved are large and the details are tricky.

I then wondered about the extent to which civil servants suffered from the not-invented-here-disease. Did they prefer to cook up their own schemes rather than look at what other people, people maybe a bit quicker off the mark have got up to? As ever, a balance, a judgement call: given the different circumstances of different countries, how much effort is it worth putting into working out what those different countries have done and whether any of it is applicable to one's own country?

But, thinking of here in the UK, has our ingrained disdain & dislike of all things from across the Channel resulted in tunnel vision?

PS 1: Lindner is just 43 years old and the leader of the German Free Democratic Party, a party which has had a bumpy ride over the years. A professional politician who is neither lawyer nor banker. Conservative, with a preference for small government, free markets and privatisation. Presently part of the ruling coalition. According to Wikipedia: '... The FDP is a predominantly classical-liberal party, both in the sense of supporting free market economic policies and in the sense of policies emphasizing the minimization of government interference in individual affairs. The party has also been described as neoliberal ... identified the FDP as closer to the CDU/CSU bloc than to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) on economic issues but closer to the SPD and the Greens on issues such as civil liberties, education, defense, and foreign policy ... The FDP supports the legalization of cannabis in Germany and opposes proposals to heighten Internet surveillance. The FDP supports same-sex marriage in Germany'.

PS 2: stop press: the camassia lily bulbs which BH planted in the wake of the visit noticed at reference 5 seem to be on the move, rather to my surprise. Well shall see... Plus, one of the Ohio buckeyes, noticed from time to time last year, thought dead and buried, is still there, maybe with buds. Again, we shall see...

References

Reference 1: A resilient Germany is weathering the energy crunch: Government measures to encourage lower consumption are market-based and do not interfere with price signals - Christian Lindner (Germany’s minister of finance), Financial Times - 2023. The source of the snap above.

Reference 2: https://www.freshfields.com/en-gb/our-thinking/knowledge/briefing/2022/12/the-german-electricity-price-brake-act-and-the-levy-of-any-surplus-revenues-ueberschusserloese-regulated-therein/.

Reference 3: https://www.freshfields.com/en-gb/our-thinking/knowledge/briefing/2022/12/gas-price-brake-for-entities-with-high-gas-consumption/.

Reference 4: https://www.alexkrauss.com/. Appears to be a photographer of the exteriors and interiors of buildings in his day job, but does other stuff for fun. And some of this last is quite fun.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-house-and-garden.html.