[thomascarney]

I think mercantile is the more appropriate adjective.

It was cynical politicians and industrialists who sold the population on a clean energy revolution, all while banking on cheap Russian gas to actually deliver the energy required.

[pgeorgi]

The clean energy revolution was promoted by the Green party in 1998-2005 (including turning off the first nuclear power plants).

It was the string of conservative governments that followed it that neglected (and, at times, actively sabotaged) the build out of renewable power sources.

[thomascarney]

SPD (center-left leaning party) has been junior partners in every one but one of those conservative governments.

German politics are also very collaborative/compromise driven, so it's a mistake to think the outcome would have been drastically different, had we had a SPD/Green coalition rather than a CDU/SPD coalition the last 16 years.

This is especially the case, given that parts of the SPD were and continue to be on Russian payroll.

Ultimately, renewables are very challenging from a technical perspective for a densely populated country with energy intensive industries and limited offshore wind options.

[oaiey]

I would say it is a long term game to become clean energy wise. There was no secret here in Germany about that we used coal, oil and gas for many more years. Renewables are still ramping up.