This article is about the German government deciding if they want to keep nuclear power plants open. Several of the plants were supposed to be shut down by the end of 2010. These plants have been in service since the early 1970's. It was decided at a high end meeting between German government officals, and members of the energy utilities board to keep all 17 power plants online (according to Spiegel).

The atomic power plants seem to be have been given an extension until an alternate source of power can be created. All of the power plants were given a certain number of "energy production credits" in order to determine how long the plant was to operate. According to Spiegel, the newer power plants would be able to share thier credits with the older atomic plants. The details of these shares would have to be worked out between the energy companies. There are some in the government who feel that this is a "dirty deal" made by government officals in order to make a profit from power plant lobbyists.

I chose this atricle because the enviornment is indeed a global issue. I know that in the United States there has been a huge movement over the past several decades to clean up the earth. I never followed another countries outlook on the issue and it appears that the US and Germany are on the same page, in theory. Many of the German people seem to be upset about the announcement of the power plants remaining open as opposed to cleaner sources of energy. However, the government has a completely different plan than the people of the country. In this way Germany is much like the United States. Although we have both have a system of government that allows the people to voice thier opinions, it often falls on deaf ears.

I found this article at http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,673875,00.html