Overview
- The federal cabinet approved the Gebäudemodernisierungsgesetz in mid-May, removing the previous 65% renewables requirement and allowing new oil and gas boilers while imposing a staged bio‑fuel blending obligation starting with 10% in 2029.
- Legal experts and politicians say the change risks constitutional challenges because the 2021 Federal Constitutional Court ruling requires credible paths to climate neutrality and forbids backsliding on protection levels.
- Hamburg’s rot‑green government plans to use the law’s Länderöffnungsklausel to keep a local ban on new oil and gas heaters, setting up a probable federal‑state clash during Bundestag and Bundesrat review.
- Separate energy tensions surfaced as media reported Total Energies and BP may seek to relinquish auctioned offshore wind areas due to grid‑connection delays while WindSeeG rules and large securities make simple withdrawals costly.
- The government’s Südbonus for new gas plants drew regional pushback and a Fraunhofer study warned it could skew siting and create double‑subsidy effects, raising questions about fairness, system needs and costs for households and coal‑region workers.