The US Shows A Way Out Of Germany's Energy Trap

The US Shows A Way Out Of Germany's Energy Trap

Submitted by Thomas Kolbe

Big developments are underway in Tennessee and Alabama. Over the next five years, the joint Japanese-American project will bring several so-called small modular reactors (SMRs) of the BWRX-300 type online. Almost one percent of U.S. electricity production—slightly more than three gigawatts—will be added to the existing energy mix by reactors designed by Hitachi and GE Vernova.

A caveat for purists of market economics: this is a hybrid project. While the majority is privately financed, export support from Japan as well as offtake guarantees and credit facilities accounting for roughly one percent of the total volume come from the U.S.

Overall, this project represents an investment of $40 billion. It joins a number of major initiatives currently being driven largely by the private sector in the U.S. Major platform operators and tech giants—Google, Meta, and Microsoft—are deeply involved in building new nuclear capacities. This disproves, above all, the claims of most German ideologues who insist that nuclear power has no future worldwide.

The fog has lifted. The truth is indisputably on the table. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz completes the evidence that Germany’s energy transition has not only failed but has destroyed hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of euros. Once the work of the eco-socialists is complete, we must conclude, more than a year’s worth of economic output may have gone up in smoke. This is economic substance and the guarantee of our prosperity. It is a reminder that the societal damage of this policy far exceeds what GDP figures alone can convey.

In the wake of this realization—now felt in everyone’s wallet—several fatal insights emerge, describing the current state of the Federal Republic. First is the successful narrowing of public discourse to Merkel’s principle of “no alternatives.” Like a pyramid scheme set from the top, the issue of CO2-driven climate change dominated not only politics. State-aligned media and corporations closely tied to the government played along, submitted to the rules, and positioned themselves at the forefront of executing this new moral framework.

After the Fukushima accident, Germany’s nuclear phase-out was sealed: too dangerous, not future-oriented. The future would lie in energy forms that, according to the green agitprop department, sent no bills. Nearly all politicians joined this intellectual blackout, enacting a monogenetic correction of party DNA across the spectrum, which now sits in front of the “firewall.”

The narrative frame was set, deeply embedded into public consciousness by the omnipresent NGO influence. A chain of guilt linked every action to a supposedly burning planet. It helped install subsidy and redistribution mechanisms and drowned even the faintest critique of the grand looting in a mixture of climate apocalypticism, moral sauce, and Thunberg-style infantilism.

That this looting continues unabated through the productive sectors of our society, and even accelerates, speaks volumes about the state of our society. Political apathy among voters combines with extraordinary arrogance and ideological stupidity in the highest ranks of this catastrophic regime.

Alongside intermittent green energy, a megastructure of new backup gas plants is to be built. Authorities speak of up to 50 such “backstops” to prevent the country from literally collapsing into social chaos during a dark doldrums period.

The statistics are indisputable. Since 2004, electricity production in China has increased by over 330 percent; in the U.S., roughly 11 percent. Germany, however, has lost 13 percent of its electricity production since its peak year 2021 and is now a net importer. Prosperity derives from energy production. Any self-imposed restrictions at this point lead society down the path of impoverishment. A historical and economic lesson, apparently never contemplated in union seminars or green think tanks. Meanwhile, in the circles of degrowth enthusiasts, rationality and bourgeois values trigger an immune-like resistance similar to the effect of advanced humanistic education.

In the U.S., President Donald Trump set in motion a shift back in 2016, briefly interrupted by the Biden administration: away from the European model of artificially constrained energy production and toward a deregulated market. Trump’s slogan “Drill, Baby, Drill” benefits the United States as a net exporter of oil and gas in the current crisis. Across the Atlantic, it is understood that autonomous control over energy capacities translates seamlessly into geopolitical leverage. The U.S. seeks strong access to energy markets to maneuver more effectively against China, for example, in the area of rare earth elements.

The emerging U.S. energy power structure, controlling Venezuelan oil, soon the Strait of Hormuz, and fostering closer ties with Arab energy states, is likely to consolidate America’s dominant position for the foreseeable future.

While Germany sheds crocodile tears over shifting geopolitics and remains frozen watching events in the Strait of Hormuz, one must ask: what is to be made of a chancellor who, despite the failed energy transition, ostentatiously rejects a return to nuclear power? Merz embodies with full force the destructive spirit of ideological blindness, too often mingled with foolish power-seeking in Berlin.

In Germany, two cooling towers at the former Gundremmingen nuclear power plant were demolished, almost four years after the last reactor was shut down. Thousands came to watch the spectacle, according to the police. pic.twitter.com/Lqh2vaQNqa
— DW News (@dwnews) October 26, 2025

Or will the Social Democrats continue to suffice to form another left-ecologist coalition and carry Merkel’s globalist project into the future?

Germany gives the impression of a stagnant pond, where sedated frogs have grown accustomed to the stench of decay. The fresh stream flowing past them is unseen—or unwelcome.

Even so, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has finally noticed, years late, that something is moving in the nuclear sector.

Tactically following Brussels’ handbook, she announced support for existing and planned nuclear projects across the EU. Whether in France, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, or even Italy, where further nuclear investment is under consideration—the political dam is broken. From nuclear investment, we can gauge Europeans’ efforts to preserve national sovereignty against Brussels’ green transformation machine.

It is obvious: technological progress will not stop even European utopians in Brussels.

To counteract the erosion of her influence, von der Leyen offered a “fund” of €200 million—a joke against the backdrop of hundreds of billions burned in the green crony economy. Yet she seeks to publicly position herself at the head of a caravan long already in motion. It is a display of power, not real politics, but at least a form of indirect acknowledgment that ideological, irrational policies have pushed the old continent deep into an economic dead end.

The entry into modern forms of nuclear power, driven by free markets, backed by reintegration of cheap Russian gas to buy time, would shatter the walls of the one-way street. Yet Degrowth Chancellor Friedrich Merz shows no interest in this path.

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About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.

Tyler Durden
Thu, 03/26/2026 - 05:00