Hacker News Reader

Comment by flohofwoe | Hacker News Reader

The government introduced a 'red tape cutting law' to speed up the process (also, it's remarkable because it's the first 'high profile project' in Germany I can remember that was finished in time).

https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/themen/klimaschutz/se...

View on HN

Not sure if it qualifies as "high profile", but the Emscher renaturization project (5 billion euro budget from 1992 to now), which included digging a 51 km underground canal was on-time and on-budget as far as I can tell.

Oh so the government removed some of the red tape (which it made itself) and suddenly the project was able to be finished on time?

Well, the 'red tape' exists so that the public also has a say in the planning process of infrastructure projects (it is their money after all that pays for those projects, but also often unfortunately results in pointless NIMBY-ism of small interest groups).

So cutting the red tape actually means taking away freedom from the people, which is a serious matter and shouldn't be taken lightly (I agree though that the two sides of the problem need to be better balanced in Germany - in the end the main problem (usually) isn't the government, but a public opinion that's somewhere between indifferent to openly hostile towards change / progress).

Red tape provides space for graft, which wants projects never completed. Grafty projects are finally completed when it looks like the money would dry up regardless.

Nukes are among the graftiest projects (alongside urban tunnels, some places). NB, even without the graft and even discounting public subsidy, they would be among the most expensive power sources, so there is never a good reason to build one.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com