Germany’s Federal Foreign Office issued a rebuke to Donald Trump after he cited the country as one that has tried to introduce nationwide green energy production but been forced to return to fossil fuels. “Within one year, they were back to building normal energy plants,” Trump declared during his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia.
The German Foreign Office posted a tweet stating that Europe’s richest country is generating 50% of its energy through renewable sources and is closing coal and nuclear plants. The statement confirmed that Germany’s remains intent on having coal “off the grid” by 2038. The tweet concluded with the remark, “PS: We also don’t eat cats and dogs.”
German State Minister Anna Lührmann justified the response saying, “Contradiction with facts and humor is the right answer to disinformation.” She added that her country has a democratic duty to correct false statements.
During the debate, viewed by more than sixty million people, the two candidates clashed over energy policy, with Trump repeatedly accusing Harris of seeking to ban fracking, including in the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania. Fracking provides around 20,000 jobs in the Keystone State, and Harris promised Philadelphians that she would not ban it. “I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking,” she said.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, extracts oil and gas from shale rock by drilling below ground and applying pressure from a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals, to release gas from the rock.
Donald Trump insisted that Harris would ban the process, but did not have the opportunity to put forward proposals he has mentioned elsewhere. Trump has pledged to once again withdraw from the Paris Agreement, in which nations agree to limit global average temperature increases to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. Trump withdrew from the pact during his first term, but President Biden rejoined in 2021. The Republican may also scrap a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles.
Former President Trump has made energy production a central plank of his campaign, and he has repeatedly pledged to dramatically reduce prices and “drill baby drill.”
