Trump Slaps 30% Tariffs on Solar Panels in Major Blow to Renewable Energy

[DFW]

5. What a contrast

Merkel's first choice for a coalition here in Germany was for her CDU, the Greens, and the pro-business Free Democrats. The head of the Free Democrats, however, is an arrogant asshole who is is the pocket of the fossil fuel industry in Germany, and scuttled the coalition because Merkel and the Greens are for renewable energy. Now, Merkel is forced to coalesce, as before, with the incompetent entrenched bureaucrats of the German Social Democrats instead of what might have been a new and possibly dynamic constellation never before tried in Germany. At least, the Social Democrats are not opposed to renewable energy.

So, Germany, no matter what else they have to contend with, is still committed to renewable energy, and will be so as long as Merkel remains chancellor. Trump, like the German Free Democrats, asks how high when Big Oil says to jump. Renewables scare the living shit out of the fossil fuel industry, and Trump has just tossed them a bone big enough to chew upon for the rest of his term.