What is a rational energy policy and who is the judge? Comments on Smyrgała’s “Fukushima and Energiewende”

In this article, we respond to a number of points raised by Dominik Smyrgała in his recent piece “Fukushima and Energiewende.” We believe his piece, although timely and taking on an important topic, suffers from three important issues. Smyrgała makes selective use of statistical data and opinions, and bends some facts and the spirit of certain documents to fit his thesis. Lastly, the question he asks about the impact of a single event on an entire energy system trajectory is epistemologically very difficult to tackle and the research design he proposes does not acknowledge it–thus failing to answer the research question. We further discuss “irrationality” as a handy rhetorical device used to criticize energy policy decisions one doe snot agree with. The goal of this response is also to provide some additional information on the changes taking place in the German energy sector and deepen the understanding of this massive social, economic, and political experiment.