Monday, November 4, 2013

Berlin Referendum on Buying Electricity Grid from Vattenfall Fails - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Can we draw some local parallels here? Click title for link Der Spiegel article. Here's a bit:
Germans already have the highest electricity prices in Europe, but, as a result of the Energiewende, they have continued to rise, placing a large burden on the country's poor. Although it is unlikely that the Berlin buy-back, had it been successful, would have lowered electricity prices for consumers, it is a sign of the growing popular discontent with the ways the electricity industry in Germany is run. A similar referendum recently passed in Hamburg, and the city's government is now forced to explore ways of buying its energy grid from Vattenfall and a company called E.on.