
106 The Rising Sun in a Developing World
competition regulations. But the courts found that these were not
subsidies, as the utilities had to pay for the tariff, rather than
any public sources. The German utilities subsequently went to the
highest European Court—only to lose again.
The conservative energy establishment also had its friends in the
media and in administrations. Franz Alt, a well-known German TV
journalist with a programme on nuclear plants, new energies and
the environment, which was very popular on state TV in those days,
had to continually defend his case against his own management.
In July 1990, a courageous Greek expert working at