Energy policy in the GDR

The most important mineral resource in the GDR from the point of view of usefulness for energy is brown coal, but its exploitation is becoming more and more expensive. On top of this the use of brown coal brings with it severe environmental pollution, which even the GDR will no longer be able to accept. There are practically no oil deposits and their natural gas production cannot cover the requirement. The GDR must limit its imports of oil and gas in order not to upset the balance of trade. Against the background of this situation this pamphlet gives an easily comprehensible and thorough survey of the development of and prospects for the energy industry in the other part of Germany. These subjects are explained amongst others; how brown coal became the basis of the energy industry in the GDR, why the great hopes for mineral oil imports from the Soviet 'brother-land' have turned out to be deceptive, that even after the Chernobyl accident there are great plans for the use of nuclear energy, why energy conservation is so difficult for the GDR. There is also an explanation of how the energy supply industry in the other German state is not only hampered by an unfavourable raw materials situation: weaknesses in the system, the clumsy adaptation of a planned economy to the constantly changing energy situation and planning errors all contribute to the fact that energy supplies also suffer from one of the great problems of socialism as it exists in reality, that is from shortage. (orig.)