A better question is why Germany invested in gas power plants in the first place. Gas has always been the most expensive source of electricity, even before "the gas crisis" (how many of those have we had already?):

https://www.ffe.de/en/publications/merit-order-shifts-and-th...

China is laughing at the prices Europe agreed to buy Russian gas for:

https://asiatimes.com/2026/07/power-of-siberia-2-deadlock-cr...

I get the idea that Germany would buy Russian gas in exchange for not having to spend on the military, but 2014 clearly showed that it didn't work. And Germany still doubled down on gas after 2022.

Now the argument seems to be that Germany will buy American gas so that it can get lower tariffs.

I don't see how Germany can compete with a China that refuses to reject the cheapest forms of energy, whatever that is (both nuclear and coal are cheaper than imported gas).