New episode of the soap opera about the controversial location of Garzweiler in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. In fact, the energy group RWE has begun the demolition of seven wind turbines located next to the old town of Lützerath. This action draws even more attention because it is carried out to expand the open-cast exploitation of the Garzweiler coal mine.
From the German newspaper The Tageszeitung newspaperThe spokesman Guido Steffen points out that this approach by RWE is part of the “main exploitation plan provided for by the mining law.” Specifically, it is above all about “extracting lignite in this sector as planned.” “RWE excavates in this place to obtain cuttings, indicates the TAZ. It is about leveling the slopes towards the coal pits in order to transform the excavated areas up to 400 meters deep into lake landscapes after exploitation. For this, it is planned to pump Rhine water from about 2030”.
The closure of the last coal-fired power plant is delayed until 2030 instead of 2038
Faced with the energy crisis that will hit Europe in 2022, the federal state and the federal government of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as RWE, negotiated an agreement to expand the use of coal. The agreement provided, in particular, for the company to increase its share of electricity produced from coal in the short term, the counterpart of this increase being to anticipate the closure of the last coal power plant from 2030 instead of 2038.
Environmental defenders, already especially critical of this agreement, whose impact on the climate they considered “weak”, reacted quickly to the fall of wind turbines. “The absurdity of the situation cannot be overcome: in the midst of the climate and energy crisis, a government of the CDU and the Greens [ndlr: celui du Land de Rhénanie Nord-Westphalie] knocked down wind turbines to expand an open pit coal mine,” says Alexandra Brüne of the Garzweiler Alle Dörfer bleiben alliance [ndlr: Tous les villages restent] interrogated by the TAZ.
Source: BFM TV
