A fact check moderators missed
On Tuesday evening, Trump criticized Harris’s
clean energy approaches like reducing fracking and fossil fuel emissions. He claimed those policies do not work and cited Germany as an example.
Germany tried that and within one year they were back to building normal energy plants. We’re not ready for it. We can’t sacrifice our country for the sake of bad vision,” Trump added.
But Germany refuted that claim, telling the former president, “Like it or not: Germany’s energy system is fully operational, with more than 50 % renewables. And we are shutting down – not building – coal & nuclear plants. Coal will be off the grid by 2038 at the latest.”
But they have faced setbacks over the last few years when they, controversially, chose to shut down their remaining three nuclear power plants last year and faced potential energy shortage issues at the start of the Ukraine–Russia war.
This meant Germany had to rely more on its coal-powered plants longer than anticipated to avoid a catastrophic shortage and starve-off price increases.
But the country has not built any new coal plants and continues to
shut down some each year.
