The FDP has asked – the Federal Ministry of Economics answered: On 45 tightly printed pages, the ministry of Robert Habeck (Greens) provides information on energy requirements, gas pipes, apartment buildings and all sorts of other details that the liberals in the controversial heating law have not yet been sufficiently clarified. But anyone who had hoped that the dispute over the law would be off the table was mistaken. The coalition partners continued to taunt each other shortly before the weekend. And experts critical of the law were not impressed by the answers to the FDP, which are available to the F.A.Z.

Johannes Pennekamp

Editor in charge of business reporting.

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"I don't find the first answer convincing at all. (...) Why are we doing politics so dishonestly at the moment?" commented Veronika Grimm, energy economist and member of the German Council of Economic Experts, on Twitter.

Discussion on emission allowances

In the first question, the FDP had inquired whether it would actually be more economical to implement the regulations of the government draft instead of transferring the "building sector" to emissions trading before 2027, as the Liberals advocate. Citing a study by the Mercator Institute, the Ministry of Economics responds "that CO2030 prices of 2 to 200 euros per tonne of CO300 would be expected in 2 without comprehensive other instruments such as subsidy programmes and regulatory law. Currently, the price is 30 euros per tonne. The experience of last year's energy crisis shows that "skyrocketing energy prices lead to severe social and economic upheavals".

The economist Grimm criticizes: "It is completely omitted that the price path can be shaped and the climate money is not mentioned."

It is also still controversial among the coalition partners whether the law, which was originally intended to ensure that at least 2024 percent of every newly installed heating system is powered by green energy from the beginning of 65, will be passed before the summer break at the beginning of July. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert has expressed confidence. He now considers this to be "absolutely realistic," said Kühnert on Thursday evening in the ZDF program "Maybrit Illner". "And I think the public has also noticed that many statements and requests to speak on the subject have changed significantly in tone and quality." He firmly believes that the law will be on the agenda for the first reading in the Bundestag session week in two weeks. "That's the prerequisite for us to get through the law before the summer break – that's the ambition."

The liberals sound quite different. Deputy parliamentary group chairman Christoph Meyer said that after the heating law had been launched in form and content by the Habeck ministry with an "unfortunate angle of entry", one is now entering a working mode. The answer to the FDP questions forms a basis for this. Kühnert should therefore not build up any "artificial time pressure". "We don't need a quick law, we need a good one," Meyer said. The adoption of the Building Energy Act before the summer break thus remains open and should not be an end in itself.