Act locally, inspire nationally - the German example

It is often suggested that America needs an energy policy like that of Germany, with its rejection of nuclear power, its embrace of radical reductions in carbon pollution, and its famous solar feed-in tariff, which spawned the industry. But how can we get there?

Germany's renewable-energy law did not originate with federal leadership; it cascaded from the efforts of a few activists in the municipality of Aachen. They got their City Council to pass a law to subsidize residents or businesses for installing solar panels.

The example of Aachen inspired 17 surrounding municipalities in the state of Schleswig-Holstein to adopt similar laws. The state legislature then decided to adopt Aachen's law as state policy, and several other German state legislatures followed with similar laws. No federal law would have been politically or even intellectually possible without Schleswig-Holstein's law, and that depended on Aachen's example.

Paul Fenn