GREEN

Guiding Europe Toward Clean Energy

By JAMES KANTER

Published: April 18, 2012

BRUSSELS — Three years ago, Germany lobbied hard to appoint one of its own nationals to the post of E.U. energy commissioner, a move partly designed to quell anxiety among giant German utilities about the Union’s environment and climate agenda.

Germany’s choice was Günther Oettinger, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right party and the governor of Baden-Württemberg, a state that used nuclear power to generate nearly half its electricity before shutting two of its four reactors last year following the disaster at Fukushima.