Baden-Württemberg: The state parliament in Baden-Württemberg wants to save energy

Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - The Baden-Württemberg state parliament also wants to make a contribution to saving energy.

Baden-Württemberg: The state parliament in Baden-Württemberg wants to save energy

Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - The Baden-Württemberg state parliament also wants to make a contribution to saving energy. This was announced by State President Muhterem Aras (Greens) in Stuttgart. Corresponding talks are currently underway. There are no concrete proposals yet. The state parliament is heated with district heating. According to the announcement, the energy supplier EnBW assumes that the state parliament will face additional costs of around 30 percent this year. In the building in which the members of parliament are housed, the house of the state parliament and also in the plenary hall, ventilation and air conditioning systems regulate the room temperature to around 22 degrees all year round.

A week ago, the Ministry of Finance declared that it expects heating costs for its own buildings to explode due to the cutback in Russian gas supplies and intends to take a whole range of countermeasures. In 2021, the state spent 17 million euros on the gas supply for around 8,000 state buildings. "Assuming a tripling of the gas price, around 51 million euros in costs for the gas supply would be expected for 2023," said the spokesman for the Ministry of Finance of the German Press Agency in Stuttgart.

But this original assumption of a tripling is probably already outdated. Purchasing on the energy exchange is already in progress, "so that according to the available projection, the costs of gas purchases will be four to five times higher than in 2021". In the worst case, the costs would be 85 million euros for 2023. There would also be additional costs for district heating, which cannot be quantified at the moment, the spokesman explained.

The Ministry of Finance is also considering that the offices of state employees may only be heated to a maximum of 18 degrees in winter. One is open to the federal government amending the workplace ordinance accordingly, said the ministry spokesman. So far, the standard for light office work has been 20 degrees. When it comes to cooling in summer, nobody wants to change anything, unlike in the federal government, in the south-west it has long been the case that cooling is only allowed from 26 degrees. But that is usually not necessary. "Our rooms are usually not cooled," said the spokesman. "We are currently developing a package of measures to be prepared for autumn and winter."