Into the brave new renewable energy future. The German government has announced it will spend €16 billion to build four major natural gas plants to meet the electricity demand their beloved renewable energy technology simply can’t meet.

A brilliant move, and long expected. Overdue, actually. You see, wind and solar power are so unreliable that you must always build a second “dirty” system (CO2 is a BAD “pollutant,” remember?) to back them up. This way you get to spend twice as much as you would have if you had only used the dirty system to begin with. Or, heavens forbid, if you had used nuclear energy to begin with (it doesn’t produce any CO2). This way, in other words, you can save the planet with one hand while you continue to pollute it with the other.

After scrapping nuclear reactors, Germany to spend billions on new gas power plants – The fossil fuel expansion is needed to ensure long-term energy security, according to industry and the government.

In a statement Monday, officials said the new strategy came “in addition to the consistent expansion of renewable energies,” and was key to ensuring steady power supplies “even in times where there is little sun and wind.”