Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - The Hessian state government wants to prepare itself for a possible delivery stop from Russia with a gas crisis team. It is true that the gas supply situation is easing somewhat that after the maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline - albeit to a reduced extent - gas is being delivered from Russia to Germany again and the storage is slowly filling up, said Hesse's Economics Minister Tarek Al-Wazir (Greens) on Friday Discussions with representatives of municipalities and business in Wiesbaden. Nobody knows, however, whether the flow of gas will eventually be stopped completely by Russia. That is why one must become independent of the unpredictable decisions of Russian President Vladimir Putin and take precautions if too little gas is available in winter, said the minister.
The aim of the crisis team is to be able to act if, with regard to gas deliveries, the emergency level of the gas emergency plan comes up. "Of course we are preparing for this in good time. We are inviting you to the first regular meeting of the crisis management team during the holidays," said Al-Wazir. The Ministry of Economics and Energy will be in charge of the gas crate staff. This also includes an e-mail hotline that citizens, municipalities and companies can contact.
In addition - as already announced in Al-Wazir's government statement last week - a general telephone hotline is to be set up at the State Energy Agency (LEA Hessen): "From August 1, anyone with questions about saving energy can contact the contact the new energy hotline," explained the minister. The telephone number will be announced in good time. Al-Wazir had warned that the Hessian economy could be hit "very hard" in the event of an emergency.
