The dispute between Thuringia and Bavaria over a new power line is intensifying. Thuringia's energy minister sharply criticizes Aiwanger going it alone.
Erfurt – The dispute between Thuringia and Bavaria is entering the next round. Bavaria's Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) surprisingly announced last week that a new route would bring electricity to Bavaria – through Thuringia. The discontent in Erfurt is now correspondingly great.
After Thuringia's State Chancellery sent a somewhat passive-aggressive “greetings to Bavaria” and a call for cooperative behavior on Tuesday (February 13), Erfurt now wants to hold talks with the Federal Network Agency.
Dispute over electricity route: Thuringia expects consultation with the states after Aiwanger's initiative
The Energy Ministry in Erfurt assumes that there will be renewed consultation with the states by the Federal Network Agency on newly introduced projects such as the P540 route, which partly runs through southern Thuringia, said a ministry spokesman on Thursday (February 15) at the request of the German Press Agency (dpa) on Hubert Aiwanger's initiative.
The SuedLink and SuedostLink power lines and now also the planned line called SuedwestLink are intended to bring electricity from northern Germany to Bavaria.
Criticism of Aiwanger: Thuringia accuses Bavaria of “bad style”.
From a Thuringian perspective, alternatives to the variant brought into discussion by Bavaria should also be discussed. This could be a bundling requirement or the priority of expanding a line over building a new one.
“With Bayern First you don’t get electricity, you get frustration and annoyance. In these times when citizens rely on reliable information regarding network expansion, energy and heating transition, this is not only bad form, but counterproductive,” said Thuringia's Energy Minister Bernhard Stengele (Greens), according to the ministry.
Joint progress in energy supply
All federal states have an interest in making progress together on clean energy supply. And that is exactly what the procedures for drawing up the network development plan and the later inclusion of the identified needs in the federal needs plan were used for. Bavaria cannot circumvent these procedures, said Stengele. “Planning the German energy infrastructure is far too important to make it more difficult through unilateral initiatives.” (so with dpa)
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