The Hessian Minister of Economic Affairs, Tarek Al-Wazir (The Greens), sees "potential for improvement" in the heating law presented by the traffic light government. He was in favour of taking a "very close look" at the draft, said the minister responsible for energy policy on Thursday in a state parliament debate on the federal building energy law.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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In its current version, which is also fiercely contested in the coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP, it stipulates that from next year onwards, at least 65 percent of new heating systems must be powered by renewable energies. However, improvements are only possible if the Bundestag also discusses the law, Al-Wazir explained.

But the FDP is preventing this at the moment. As reported, the Free Democrats had the federal government's bill taken off the agenda of parliament for this week. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (The Greens) reacted to this with the accusation of breaking his word. This conflict has now been continued in a current hour of the state parliament requested by the SPD.

A "struggle for survival"

Al-Wazir, who is running for prime minister in October's state elections, did not say how he envisions the amendment to the bill. He reproached the FDP for having approved the project not only in the coalition agreement of the traffic light, but also in two coalition rounds and in a meeting of the cabinet.

René Rock, the leader of the Free Democrats, strongly disagreed. He cited, for example, the protocol statement of the four ministers of his party on the cabinet decision of 19 April. It contains the announcement that improvements will be enforced in the parliamentary procedure.

The FDP is not about the matter, said Mathias Wagner, the parliamentary group leader of the Greens. She is leading a "struggle for survival" with the topic. Those who fight the law do not want Germany to be climate-neutral in 2045. Incidentally, the prices for fossil fuels would rise exorbitantly in the coming years. According to Wagner, the financial burdens that would be placed on consumers who would then still heat with gas would be enormous.

Günter Rudolph, the chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, emphasized the social issue and warned of acute excessive demands triggered by the heating law. As an example, he cited pensioners who live in the countryside and need to equip their homes with a new heat pump.

SPD also sees a need to catch up

They wouldn't even get a loan for such an investment, Rudolph noted. He, too, sees a "need to catch up" with the law. As an example, the Social Democrat cited the "implementation deadlines". Rudolph also criticized the exclusive commitment to only one technology.

There are neither enough heat pumps nor enough craftsmen who could install them, said MP Michael Müller (CDU). He spoke out in favour of technically optimising the gas heating systems available in countless German households and combining this "modernisation offensive" with a "heat pump initiative".

The fact that the Hessian debate in Berlin does not go unheard is due to Philipp Nimmermann. The former state secretary in Al-Wazir's department attended a plenary session in Wiesbaden for the last time before taking care of the controversial law in the Federal Ministry of Economics.