Several German states filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to
overturn a decision by German Prime Minister Angela Merkel to extend the lives
of the country’s 17 nuclear power plants.
The center-left Green and Social Democrat parties passed
legislation in 2000 that would phase out nuclear plants in Germany by roughly
2020. Merkel has long argued that, while the energy sector should replace the
plants, it should be given more time to find renewable alternatives. In October
Merkel’s government passed legislation that would allow the country’s reactors to
operate for an average of 12 additional years, according to dm-world.de. The
suit contests the way she passed the measure – by securing a vote of the German
legislature’s lower house but enacting the law without approval of the upper house,
where the measure likely would have failed. (Under the German constitution, the
upper house generally votes only on legislation affecting German states’
financial or legislative interests.)
The announcement of the suit sparked anti-nuclear protests
in the country over the weekend. On Monday, according to a Platts report,
Greenpeace protestors scaled an EnBW nuclear plant cooling tower near Stuttgart
in a stunt that reportedly left a guard injured but that did not disrupt plant
operations.