Germany's cabinet on Wednesday approved putting on-reserve lignite-fired power plants back online from October until the end of March 2024, the economy ministry said, as a step to replace scarce natural gas this winter and avoid shortages.
This is an emergency procedure due to Russia's invasion in Ukraine. Without the invasion, the backup coal plants would just stay backup. As coal plants need weeks to start up, they cannot just be turned on when needed. They need to be turned on early and likely run with low power through the winter, just in case they might be needed. This is bad too. This is due to Putin's war.
It's silly to make connections to the 1986 & 2011 nuclear exit, when the cause for this short-term measure is a recent event. Without Russia invading Ukraine, the coal plants would stay off.
Putin isn't to blame for decades of terrible energy politics and Germany becoming depended on Russian energy even though everybody told us it was a bad idea.
It wasn't Putin who bombed Nordstream nor was it Putin who decided to make Germany completely forget the principle of energy independence. Germany fucked themselves and now people are looking for excuses.