Pancevski, Bojan. “Germany to Keep Last Three Nuclear-Power Plants Running in Policy U-Turn.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 18 Aug. 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-to-keep-last-three-nuclear-power-plants-running-in-policy-u-turn-11660661914. 

Germany was set to close their last three nuclear power plants by the ned of 2022, however, their lack of access to natural gas and energy is causing them to keep them reopened. Because of mass political chaos in many European nations, Germany’s major supplier of gas, Russia, is no longer exporting to them. This has caused an energy threat, leading Germany to keep their power plants which are not supposed to run in 2023 because of needed maintenance. However, there are many people and political parties in Germany that are in mass support of removing these power plants, causing even more chaos within the nation. Germany is also recommending energy consumption be cut by 20% to sustain what they have access to. Many politicians and scientists are studying whether or not keeping the power plants would help Germany’s energy crisis and some are taking legal action against their choice to keep the plants active. 

 

This article addresses the big issue of what situations call for environmental protection to be broken. This logic can be applied to many other scenarios like the dam in Jasper Ridge. Given that it is a time of minimal energy production, it makes sense why Germany would want to keep their power plants, however, it does set a bad precedent of environmental protection being a second thought. I think that they should keep the three power plants up until their energy access is back to normal, but they should fulfill their promise to phase out nuclear energy soon after. At the same time, I hope that they make regulations to limit people’s energy consumption so everyone can do their part in protecting the limited energy resources.