Dear Mr Söder,

on 22.06.2022 you said on Deutschlandfunk radio on the topic of extending the operating lives of nuclear power plants that the situation was very serious and that one should not “retreat to ideological corners” in this situation. Oh, Mr Söder, you speak from my heart! By the way, as far as the issue itself is concerned, the head of the energy company RWE, Markus Krebber, has an interesting objection. He said that the fuel rods could not simply be bought from anywhere, because they would have to “match the reactor type exactly”. And unfortunately, most of the uranium comes from Russia, which is why the “question of safety architecture or safety checks” should not be underestimated. When questioned about this, you pointed to expert appraisals by the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment and TÜV Süd, which came to completely different conclusions.

It is simply hugely important that independent expert opinions are available on such a controversial topic. However, if you think about it, isn’t the Bavarian Ministry of the Environment the Ministry of the Environment of the State of Bavaria? – and aren’t you, in turn, are the father of the state? And your former party friend, the ex-Minister of State Sauter (because of his business with masks), has been receiving €225,000 a year from TÜV Süd since 2018 and acts as chairman of the TÜV Süd social committee? At least that’s what you can read on the website of the Bavarian State Parliament. But back to the interview. When asked how nuclear power plants are supposed to supply electricity in winter when they have to be checked and then shut down for two months after a winter delivery of fuel rods in order to continue operation, you absolutely refused to answer. And when questioned about your priorities in case of a reduction in gas supplies, you pointed to potential job losses, inflation and new debt. Finally, someone with expertise and well thought-through solutions!

But now back to your comment that one should not “retreat to ideological corners” in view of the situation. The topic is ‘wind power’ and the so-called 10H rule, which prescribes a minimum distance of ten times the wind turbine‘s height from the nearest settlement. This is another reason why only 0.7% of the area of Bavaria is currently designated as land for such use. As a result, Bavaria is only in fourth from last place among the federal states in terms of wind power output. Since you yourself have so far remained in your ideological corner on this point, the federal law passed at the beginning of July wisely foresees that if Bavaria does not expand its wind energy generation speedily, your distance rules will automatically cease to apply. And as far as I’m concerned? Rightly so.