Penalties as incentives for smart meters?

The new German government of the two biggest parties, the "grand" coalition that has historically not managed to achieve anything grand for the country, is almost inevitable now.

The junior partner SPD will have a vote of the party base on the coalition agreement. A vote that theoretically could nix the coalition but for all intents and purposes the docile SPD members will give the leadership a nod, and then nod off for four years until the next general election.

From the looks of it, this government will cost the citizens a lot of money. The small improvements to retirement benefits for non-working mothers and a proposal for retirement at age 63 if you had 45 years of social security contributions will eat up the pension coffers surplus. A minimum wage is coming, too. Starting in 2015, rising incrementally for some jobs to "full" minimum wage 2017, just before the next election, great timing.

A proposal for a general freeway toll for foreigners will be attacked by other EU countries as inequitable (German drivers are supposed to see a reduction in vehicle tax to compensate for the toll), thus giving the new government a perfect excuse for making Germans pay up, too. The statement a few years down the road will probably be like this: "Well, the EU won't let us charge only foreigners, and we really need the money, so, sorry folks".

The great push towards newable energy, already slowed down and hollowed out like Swiss cheese, is throttled a bit more. The latest version of the quintessential German incentive called "penalty" apparently is coming for smart meters.

While the K-Landnews folks love the idea of smart meters,  we have lived through some of the nastiness around smart meters back in the U.S. and the German news elicited a nervous laugh on our part.

In addition to further energy price increases, we'll get a "you do not have a smart meter, so you pay a penalty" letter soon, as if nobody in that grandiose coalition had ever heard of incentives.

Clawing back incentives is not easy, as the U.S. debate about hybrid cars shows, so why not introduce a road tax on bicycles? They use roads too.

And while you are at it, don't for forget the steep rise in Zimmer frame sales of that ageing population. Zimmer frames almost double the footprint of the little old lady and the formerly burly male, putting an extra burden on sidewalk maintenance.

We'd be happy to devise more revenue schemes for the new government but no one asked.