Euro Notes: Green Germany and the Curious Case of the Marburg Solar Panels

What happens when persuasion turns to compulsion? The green debate takes an unhappy turn in the town of Marburg. Here is a blurb:

This fairy-tale town is stuck in the middle of a utopian struggle over renewable energy. The town council's decision to require solar-heating panels has thrown Marburg into a vehement debate over the boundaries of ecological good citizenship and led opponents to charge that their genteel town has turned into a "green dictatorship."

The town council took the significant step in June of moving from merely encouraging citizens to install solar panels to making them an obligation. The ordinance, the first of its kind in Germany, would require solar panels not only on new buildings, which fewer people oppose, but also on existing homes that undergo renovations or get new heating systems or roof repairs.

To give the regulation teeth, a fine of 1,000 euro, about $1,500, awaits those who do not comply.

Critics howled that the rule constituted an attack on the rights of property owners. The regional government in Giessen stepped in and warned that it would overturn the rule.

City officials in Marburg said, in turn, that they would take their case either to administrative court or all the way to the Hessian state capital, Wiesbaden, where they would try to get the state building code changed to protect their ordinance from officials in Giessen.

Oh, just go read the whole thing. I did see one little bit in the article that especially caught my eye. Here is it: "...the Marburg dispute sometimes feels like an argument between the enlightened environmentalists and the really enlightened environmentalists."

("I care about the earth!" "Well, I care more!" "No, you don't!" "Yes, I do!" "I recycle 90% of all my garbage!" "You polluting monster! I recycle 92%!" And so on. *Sigh.* Schoolyard tactics?)

This rather reinforces my thesis that much of the enviro-crusade is not so much about "saving the planet!!!" as much as feeling self-righteous and morally superior about oneself (and having that moral superiority be a justification for steamrollering over "less enlightened" people -- i.e., people who disagree with you and your policies).

Come on, Greenies. Persuade people to adopt more ecologically-friendly choices. Offer incentives to go green and, more importantly, to pursue better tech R&D. For goodness sake, forcing people to do things -- and fining them punitively -- will only create a backlash (and a well-deserved one too). Heaven save me from wild-eyed extreme Greenies convinced that their apocalyptic-messianic vision gives them carte blanche to run roughshod over people!