BERLIN, Feb 2 (Reuters) - Germany has dropped a proposal to unify environmental rules for industrial and infrastructure projects, highlighting the difficulties of getting agreement between its ruling parties in an election year.

Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), put the blame for failure to agree the measure squarely on conservatives in the state of Bavaria, saying they were showing a "hollow reluctance to reform and blind blocking policies".

Bavaria is ruled by a coalition headed by the Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats. The CSU is flexing its muscles to boost its popularity in time for September's federal election after a dismal showing in last year's regional state poll.

"Even industry doesn't want what Bavaria now wants," Gabriel told reporters on Monday. "I've been ready to make compromises ... but I cannot agree to total nonsense and that's what (CSU head Horst) Seehofer wants ...

"In the CDU, there is no one who is keeping order," he said.

Currently, Germany's 16 federal states grant environmental planning approval, under rules that vary slightly from state to state.

Gabriel's plan aimed to combine tens of thousands of individual laws and provide nationwide environmental planning criteria.

However, several senior conservatives backed Bavaria and said Gabriel had tried to limit the states' authority too much.

Industry and green groups expressed disappointment.

The building of power plants would have been made easier with the new "book" of laws, said the energy producers' group BDEW.

"Now we have still got growth with no controls and lots of bureaucracy," said BDEW managing director Hildegard Mueller.

Among other infrastructure investments, Germany must soon renew ageing power plants and transmission grids on a big scale.

In particular, there are a number of renewable energy installations in the pipeline such as wind turbines, or solar and biomass plants.

Gabriel said he would now try to agree less ambitious national planning rules specifically covering water and nature protection. (Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

AlertNet news is provided by