Centre news
07.11.2023

Lion Hirth speaks at Bundestag hearing on changes to the Energy Industry Act

The Professor of Energy Policy provided expert testimony at a hearing of the German Bundestag Committee for Climate Protection and Energy on a potential subsidy for transmission network costs.

On 6 November, Lion Hirth, Professor of Energy Policy at the Hertie School, provided expert testimony at a hearing of the German Bundestag Committee for Climate Protection and Energy. The public hearing was about a €5.5 billion subsidy for transmission grid costs from the Economic Stabilization Fund that the German government is planning. In his testimony, Hirth spoke generally favorably about the subsidy, calling the 5.5 billion euro grant “certainly one of the better options.” But it would be even better, according to his suggestion, to spend the sum as climate money. From his point of view, this would ensure low-income households were relieved more than others. Hirth also advocated dividing Germany into electricity price zones, explaining that network fees would fall as a result.

Hirth's comments were also quoted in local German media, including in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). 

Read the original article (in German) here.

Watch the video of the hearing (in German) below:

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