Germany faces energy balancing act

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/germany-faces-energy-balancing-act/2012/08/23/d3b82ddc-e979-11e1-936a-b801f1abab19_story.html

In a country with ambitious intentions to go green, last week brought an unsettling image for eco-advocates: Germany’s environment minister presiding over the opening of one of the largest coal-fired power plants in the world.

The massive new power station near Cologne is a frontal challenge to efforts to drive down greenhouse gases, and some critics say it embodies a tricky contradiction in Germany’s ambitions to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2020 and eliminate nuclear power two years later.

German leaders say that they are finding the right compromise between cost and environmental stewardship and that they will meet their 2020 goals.