Post by Jaga on May 31, 2021 3:21:36 GMT -7
Czechia took Poland to EU court over pollution caused by lignite coal mine at the boarder.
This caused an international dispute with our neighbors. More about it in the NYTimes
www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/world/europe/poland-czech-coal-mine-environment.html
Dispute Over a Coal Industry Pits Poland Against Its Neighbors
The Czech Republic has sued Poland over a lignite coal mine it says violates European environmental laws. Poles say it’s crucial for jobs and the local economy.
The village of Uhelna in the Czech Republic, overlooking the Turow coal mine across the border in Poland.
By Andrew HigginsPhotographs by Maciek Nabrdalik
May 30, 2021
BOGATYNIA, POLAND — The huge hole in the ground, dug ever deeper and wider by generations of Polish strip miners feeding their country’s voracious appetite for coal, has devoured a dozen villages and nibbled away at land and homes in a 19th-century spa town on its rim.
The hole has grown so big, sucking in water from miles around, that wells over the border in the Czech Republic are running dry, local residents say.
Michael Martin, a German train driver who lives in a Czech village across the border from the Polish mine, said the well in his garden, previously his main source of water, is now nearly dry and he runs a pipe to a deeper communal well more than 100 yards away.
“They say they want to be good neighbors,” he said of the miners in the nearby Polish town of Bogatynia, in southwestern Poland, “but why do they keep digging for coal and taking my water?”
Large water containers in Michael Martin’s garage in the Czech Republic village of Vaclavice are needed because his well is almost dry.
Coal, with which Poland generates around 70 percent of its electricity, more than any other European country, has a tenacious grip in this part of the world: it provides energy, jobs and votes to those who defend it, like the conservative governing party, Law and Justice. And, in a deeply insecure country whose striking miners helped set in motion forces that toppled the Soviet empire, coal also provides a rare sense of security, sparing it from heavy dependence on Russian natural gas.
Poland is so dependent on coal that, just as the International Energy Agency called this month for a halt to the approval of new coal-fired power plants, a coal-powered electricity station next to the gigantic mine at Bogatynia opened a new $1 billion expansion.
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The Turow open pit coal mine at Bogatynia in southwestern Poland.
The plant uses lignite coal, which emits far more carbon dioxide than other varieties, from the adjacent open-cast mine, known as Turow. The mine was to have shut down this year but, to howls of protest from environmentalists, the government in March extended its license until 2044.
Europe’s highest court demanded earlier this month that operations at the Turow mine halt until judges can rule on a Czech lawsuit filed in February against Poland for violation of European environmental rules, a process that could take years.
The Czech action has stirred an ugly ruckus suffused with nationalism in a European bloc that usually manages to smother open disputes between member states.
It has also put a harsh spotlight on Poland’s enduring attachment to coal.
Krzysztof Wozniak, a builder who has watched the lignite mine advance steadily toward his house in Opolno-Zdroj, a crumbling former spa town next to Bogatynia, said that coal mining was so enmeshed with the area’s past and, most residents believe, its future, that “you very quickly become a public enemy around here if you talk against the mine.”
The coal mine and adjacent power plant do not employ more than a few thousand people, he added, but have “become a cult” that few dare challenge.
Krzysztof Wozniak, a home owner in Opolno Zdroj, a former spa town on the edge of the Turow open pit coal mine, says his vocal criticism of the mine’s expansion has made him enemies.
The legal challenge by the Czech Republic has set off spasms of conspiracy-tinged fury. Poles accuse the Czechs of trying to expand sales of their own coal while Germans are accused of exploiting carbon emission targets to boost sales of their green technology. Czechs along the border say Poland is strangling them by draining their water.
Czech and Polish officials, eager to calm the furor, are now haggling over a possible deal that would allow the mine to stay open, at least for a time, and would require Poland to fund projects aimed at ameliorating water shortages in the Czech Republic.
But this will not solve a bigger problem. A sudden retreat from coal, many in Poland fear, will push the country into the position of Germany, which is heavily dependent on imports of natural gas from Russia.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland said this month that the government would not allow the Bogatynia mine to close because “this could put Poland’s energy security at risk.”
Of more immediate concern, however, are the domestic political risks of moving away quickly from coal.
On a visit to Bogatynia before Poland’s election for president last year, the incumbent, Andrzej Duda, said that coal miners provided a “great service” to Poland and that they would not be abandoned. The town’s voters backed him in the election, helping him to victory.
Andrzej Grzegorowski, a trade union leader at the power plant next to the Turow mine, said he voted for Mr. Duda because “he ignited great hopes for the future of coal.” Whether he votes for Mr. Duda’s governing Law and Justice party again, however, will depend on whether it keeps the mine open, he added.
Fearful of antagonizing miners, a shrinking but well-organized and vociferous constituency, Polish politicians have long struggled to balance demands for green energy emanating from Brussels with voters’ demands for jobs.
“Everyone in my family has always been connected to the mine here,” said Bogumił Tyszkiewicz, a union leader at the Turow mine. His two brothers, two brothers-in-law and his sister all have jobs with Polish Energy Group, or PGE, a state-owned company that operates the mine and the adjacent power plant. Only his son, who found work with a green energy company in another town, does not depend on the mine for his livelihood.
...
This caused an international dispute with our neighbors. More about it in the NYTimes
www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/world/europe/poland-czech-coal-mine-environment.html
Dispute Over a Coal Industry Pits Poland Against Its Neighbors
The Czech Republic has sued Poland over a lignite coal mine it says violates European environmental laws. Poles say it’s crucial for jobs and the local economy.
The village of Uhelna in the Czech Republic, overlooking the Turow coal mine across the border in Poland.
By Andrew HigginsPhotographs by Maciek Nabrdalik
May 30, 2021
BOGATYNIA, POLAND — The huge hole in the ground, dug ever deeper and wider by generations of Polish strip miners feeding their country’s voracious appetite for coal, has devoured a dozen villages and nibbled away at land and homes in a 19th-century spa town on its rim.
The hole has grown so big, sucking in water from miles around, that wells over the border in the Czech Republic are running dry, local residents say.
Michael Martin, a German train driver who lives in a Czech village across the border from the Polish mine, said the well in his garden, previously his main source of water, is now nearly dry and he runs a pipe to a deeper communal well more than 100 yards away.
“They say they want to be good neighbors,” he said of the miners in the nearby Polish town of Bogatynia, in southwestern Poland, “but why do they keep digging for coal and taking my water?”
Large water containers in Michael Martin’s garage in the Czech Republic village of Vaclavice are needed because his well is almost dry.
Coal, with which Poland generates around 70 percent of its electricity, more than any other European country, has a tenacious grip in this part of the world: it provides energy, jobs and votes to those who defend it, like the conservative governing party, Law and Justice. And, in a deeply insecure country whose striking miners helped set in motion forces that toppled the Soviet empire, coal also provides a rare sense of security, sparing it from heavy dependence on Russian natural gas.
Poland is so dependent on coal that, just as the International Energy Agency called this month for a halt to the approval of new coal-fired power plants, a coal-powered electricity station next to the gigantic mine at Bogatynia opened a new $1 billion expansion.
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Continue reading the main story
The Turow open pit coal mine at Bogatynia in southwestern Poland.
The plant uses lignite coal, which emits far more carbon dioxide than other varieties, from the adjacent open-cast mine, known as Turow. The mine was to have shut down this year but, to howls of protest from environmentalists, the government in March extended its license until 2044.
Europe’s highest court demanded earlier this month that operations at the Turow mine halt until judges can rule on a Czech lawsuit filed in February against Poland for violation of European environmental rules, a process that could take years.
The Czech action has stirred an ugly ruckus suffused with nationalism in a European bloc that usually manages to smother open disputes between member states.
It has also put a harsh spotlight on Poland’s enduring attachment to coal.
Krzysztof Wozniak, a builder who has watched the lignite mine advance steadily toward his house in Opolno-Zdroj, a crumbling former spa town next to Bogatynia, said that coal mining was so enmeshed with the area’s past and, most residents believe, its future, that “you very quickly become a public enemy around here if you talk against the mine.”
The coal mine and adjacent power plant do not employ more than a few thousand people, he added, but have “become a cult” that few dare challenge.
Krzysztof Wozniak, a home owner in Opolno Zdroj, a former spa town on the edge of the Turow open pit coal mine, says his vocal criticism of the mine’s expansion has made him enemies.
The legal challenge by the Czech Republic has set off spasms of conspiracy-tinged fury. Poles accuse the Czechs of trying to expand sales of their own coal while Germans are accused of exploiting carbon emission targets to boost sales of their green technology. Czechs along the border say Poland is strangling them by draining their water.
Czech and Polish officials, eager to calm the furor, are now haggling over a possible deal that would allow the mine to stay open, at least for a time, and would require Poland to fund projects aimed at ameliorating water shortages in the Czech Republic.
But this will not solve a bigger problem. A sudden retreat from coal, many in Poland fear, will push the country into the position of Germany, which is heavily dependent on imports of natural gas from Russia.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland said this month that the government would not allow the Bogatynia mine to close because “this could put Poland’s energy security at risk.”
Of more immediate concern, however, are the domestic political risks of moving away quickly from coal.
On a visit to Bogatynia before Poland’s election for president last year, the incumbent, Andrzej Duda, said that coal miners provided a “great service” to Poland and that they would not be abandoned. The town’s voters backed him in the election, helping him to victory.
Andrzej Grzegorowski, a trade union leader at the power plant next to the Turow mine, said he voted for Mr. Duda because “he ignited great hopes for the future of coal.” Whether he votes for Mr. Duda’s governing Law and Justice party again, however, will depend on whether it keeps the mine open, he added.
Fearful of antagonizing miners, a shrinking but well-organized and vociferous constituency, Polish politicians have long struggled to balance demands for green energy emanating from Brussels with voters’ demands for jobs.
“Everyone in my family has always been connected to the mine here,” said Bogumił Tyszkiewicz, a union leader at the Turow mine. His two brothers, two brothers-in-law and his sister all have jobs with Polish Energy Group, or PGE, a state-owned company that operates the mine and the adjacent power plant. Only his son, who found work with a green energy company in another town, does not depend on the mine for his livelihood.
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