It is necessary to pull out alternative energy projects that have long been approved but are still in the drawer and implement them quickly. Otherwise there is a risk of running into the next dependency when looking for alternatives to Russian gas.
“We have to completely get out of oil and gas, finally break the fossil chains,” says Kaineder, but Upper Austria is currently “only working with a nail file” on this project. Because “the procedure has been too sluggish for far too long”, an emergency program is now “practically without alternative”, said the environmental state councilor at a press conference on Monday. “It will be a feat of strength that will bring a lot of change. But there are changes that are necessary and that strengthen Upper Austria.”
As examples, he cited the already approved pumped storage power plant projects in Ebensee and Molln or expansion plans for the Saurüssel and Sternstein wind farms, among others, where no further wind turbines are possible according to the new wind power master plan, as well as large-scale PV systems, solar, biogas or geothermal energy use . “We have enormous expansion potential and a huge pool of projects in Upper Austria,” he called on the provincial government to set up a special project group that “offers concrete support to the project planners so that they can now implement these energy projects”.
NEOS spokesman and club chairman Felix Eypeltauer also criticized that dependence on Russian gas was primarily a self-made problem. “The mere fact that Austria’s largest gas storage facility in Haidach, Upper Austria, belongs to Gazprom shows how much Austrian politics has made us dependent on Russia in recent years.” In addition to a nationwide action plan for phasing out Russian gas, he called for Upper Austria to launch targeted funding programs, for example for heat pumps and thermal renovation, and to accelerate the process of expanding renewables.
Source: Nachrichten
