Environment & Energy

Germany still has regions where "Coal is King," more so than the United States. The labor unions supporting the coal industry are much stronger than unions in the United States. Some industries have their own coal fired power plants. The people in these regions will resist any changes to the status quo.

There's little room for further hydropower development in Germany. This resource has been fully exploited. New pumped storage capacity would be incredibly expensive. Hydropower can mask many of the deficiencies of wind and solar power. On reason wind and solar power in California could expand as rapidly as it did was that many of the state's water projects had not yet been optimized to source and sink electric power. Adding wind and solar to the California electric grid heightened the incentives to do this.

The biggest failing of Germany was it's faith in Putin. They thought thought they could get Putin to behave himself if they increased German economic ties to Russia. In their Utopian vision Germany would build the best non-nuclear hybrid gas / wind / solar electric grid in the world and Putin would see the light and embrace the political and economic principles of the European Union. That's not what happened.

( My personal opinions, of course, and subject to change... )