Dirtiest Fuel Threatens 700-Year-Old Villages in Europe
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Europe’s energy dilemma -- burning the dirtiest coal while meeting pollution targets -- is crystallizing in opposition to a plan that would uproot 700-year-old villages and dig two pits the size of Manhattan.
PGE SA and Vattenfall AB, the Warsaw- and Stockholm-based utilities, want to tap Europe’s richest lignite deposit, along the German-Polish border. They’re opposed by communities already suffering sporadic sand storms and crumbling roads, in an area where the 12 kilometer (7.5 miles) long Jaenschwalde mine has dominated the landscape for three decades. Locals will form an 8-kilometer cross-border human chain on Aug. 23 in protest.