Freelance Translators from Scratch

Here is a translation of a TAZ (Die Tageszeitung - a daily paper out of Berlin, Germany) from February 23, 2008.

Click here to link to the source. Your comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome.

Debate over building power plant in Mainz

Union discovers climate protection

The CDU Chairman for Rhineland-Palatinate speaks out against the planned coal-fired plant in Mainz. The nuclear plant should continue to operate. BY KLAUS-PETER KLINGELSCHMITT

The CDU changes its mind: Now coal-fired plants should not be built. Photo: dpa

MAINZ taz “The burning of coal is an outdated technology and one of the most environmentally destructive ways to produce electricity. To head in this direction cannot be our goal.” This is the assessment reached by Christian Baldauf, Chairman and party whip for the Rhineland-Palatinate CDU. And he went public with this judgment - after a discussion with representatives from the citizens’ group “A Coal-free Mainz” this past Friday.

On the preceding Friday, citizens’ groups from Mainz and Wiesbaden delivered almost 60,000 formal complaints to the regulatory agency in protest over the planned construction of a power plant by the Kraftwerke Main-Wiesbaden Corporation (KMW). KMW wants to build a coal-fired plant with a capacity of over 800 megawatts in the Rheinaue wetlands of Mainz. Union Chairman Badauf is now saying that, in opposition to such a project, there actually are “ecological, economic and, most importantly, health concerns that have to be taken seriously.” Therefore, “all possible measures to avoid the environmental harm of a coal-fired plant (have to be) taken into account” - for instance, the construction of a power plant fueled by gas, a project for which a permit has already been granted.

Advertisement

In the meantime, the fact that the local energy provider, KMW, itself applied for an extension of this permit is also, the Christian Democrat feels, proof that there clearly is, “in contrast to the claims made by the KMW up until now”, a viable alternative to a plant powered by coal gasification.

With this, Union Chairman Badauf is opposing himself to his party’s regional politicians, who continue to favor the coal-fired plant. Even the state government under Minister President Kurt Beck includes itself among the supporters of a power plant fueled by coal gasification in the Ingelheim meadows. This stands in complete contrast to comrades in Hesse who, along with the “pope of solar energy”, Hermann Scheer, the shadow minister in party leader Andrea Ypsilant’s team of experts, are completely in favor of renewable energy sources.

Has the CDU overtaken the SPD “Lefties” in Rhineland-Palatinate and is the party catching up on the Green Party - who are no longer represented in the state parliament - to become the number two environmentalist party in the state? Hardly. Baldauf is merely aligning his veto of the coal-fire plant with an appeal to extend the operating life of the nuclear reactor as “a transition period”. Of course, even he could no longer allow the construction of a new atomic reactor.

The Greens of Rhineland-Palatinate have called this apparent “policy change” on the part of the CDU “staggering”. They view the objections of almost 60,000 citizens to the coal-fired plant as “the real cause for such a change of face”. In the words of the spokeswoman for the state Green Party executive, Eveline Lemke-Ziebeil: “a tremendous success for the citizens’ groups”.

KLAUS-PETER KLINGELSCHMITT

[translated February 24, 2008]