[oblio]

In what measure is that a result of bad policy and or a result of a desire to promote thriftiness? After all gas in the US is cheap and in Europe it's expensive and I think a major part of the price are excises meant to discourage consumpation.

As a side note, the EU is also pushing heavily energy efficiency for homes, this might be related.

[walshemj]

Given that was the direct result of a panic over tsunami's in japan and guess what Germany doesn't have much of a coast line.

The early mothballing of Germanys nuclear reactor which where being phased out is the direct cause of the increase.

[germanier]

The German nuclear phase-out and funding of renewable energy development through electricity taxes was started in 2000, a decade before the Fukushima event and as a direct result of a (by then) two decade old environmental movement.

The German government decided to extend the lifetime of some reactors shortly before the event but that plan was immediately scrapped again. Risk of tsunamis itself were not the reason but rather that the public overwhelmingly did not trust the operators to follow safe procedures given that the Japenese operator didn't. But again, nuclear power was really unpopular even before that.