Dispute over a coal mine pits Poland in opposition to its neighbors

Written by Andrew Higgins
The enormous gap within the floor, dug ever deeper and wider by generations of Polish strip miners feeding their nation’s voracious urge for food for coal, has devoured a dozen villages and nibbled away at land and houses in a Nineteenth-century spa city on its rim.
The gap has grown so huge, sucking in water from miles round, that wells over the border within the Czech Republic are working dry, native residents say.
Michael Martin, a German prepare driver who lives in a Czech village throughout the border from the Polish mine, mentioned the properly in his backyard, beforehand his most important supply of water, is now almost dry and he runs a pipe to a deeper communal properly greater than 100 yards away.
“They say they want to be good neighbors,” he mentioned of the miners within the close by Polish city of Bogatynia, in southwestern Poland, “but why do they keep digging for coal and taking my water?”
Coal, with which Poland generates round 70% of its electrical energy, greater than another European nation, has a tenacious grip on this a part of the world: it supplies vitality, jobs and votes to those that defend it, just like the conservative governing social gathering, Law and Justice. And, in a deeply insecure nation whose placing miners helped set in movement forces that toppled the Soviet empire, coal additionally supplies a uncommon sense of safety, sparing it from heavy dependence on Russian pure gasoline.
Poland is so depending on coal that, simply because the International Energy Agency referred to as this month for a halt to the approval of recent coal-fired energy crops, a coal-powered electrical energy station subsequent to the large mine at Bogatynia opened a brand new $1 billion growth.

The plant makes use of lignite coal, which emits much more carbon dioxide than different varieties, from the adjoining open-cast mine, generally known as Turow. The mine was to have shut down this yr however, to howls of protest from environmentalists, the federal government in March prolonged its license till 2044.
Europe’s highest court docket demanded earlier this month that operations on the Turow mine halt till judges can rule on a Czech lawsuit filed in February in opposition to Poland for violation of European environmental guidelines, a course of that might take years.
The Czech motion has stirred an unsightly ruckus suffused with nationalism in a European bloc that normally manages to smother open disputes between member states.
It has additionally put a harsh highlight on Poland’s enduring attachment to coal.
Krzysztof Wozniak, a builder who has watched the lignite mine advance steadily towards his home in Opolno-Zdroj, a crumbling former spa city subsequent to Bogatynia, mentioned that coal mining was so enmeshed with the realm’s previous and, most residents consider, its future, that “you very quickly become a public enemy around here if you talk against the mine.”
The coal mine and adjoining energy plant don’t make use of quite a lot of thousand individuals, he added, however have “become a cult” that few dare problem.
The authorized problem by the Czech Republic has set off spasms of conspiracy-tinged fury. Poles accuse the Czechs of attempting to develop gross sales of their very own coal whereas Germans are accused of exploiting carbon emission targets to spice up gross sales of their inexperienced expertise. Czechs alongside the border say Poland is strangling them by draining their water.
Czech and Polish officers, wanting to calm the furor, at the moment are haggling over a attainable deal that may enable the mine to remain open, at the least for a time, and would require Poland to fund tasks aimed toward ameliorating water shortages within the Czech Republic.
But this is not going to clear up a much bigger drawback. A sudden retreat from coal, many in Poland worry, will push the nation into the place of Germany, which is closely depending on imports of pure gasoline from Russia.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland mentioned this month that the federal government wouldn’t enable the Bogatynia mine to shut as a result of “this could put Poland’s energy security at risk.”
Of extra rapid concern, nevertheless, are the home political dangers of transferring away shortly from coal.
On a go to to Bogatynia earlier than Poland’s election for president final yr, the incumbent, Andrzej Duda, mentioned that coal miners offered a “great service” to Poland and that they’d not be deserted. The city’s voters backed him within the election, serving to him to victory.
Andrzej Grzegorowski, a commerce union chief on the energy plant subsequent to the Turow mine, mentioned he voted for Duda as a result of “he ignited great hopes for the future of coal.” Whether he votes for Duda’s governing Law and Justice social gathering once more, nevertheless, will rely upon whether or not it retains the mine open, he added.
Fearful of antagonizing miners, a shrinking however well-organized and vociferous constituency, Polish politicians have lengthy struggled to steadiness calls for for inexperienced vitality emanating from Brussels with voters’ calls for for jobs.
“Everyone in my family has always been connected to the mine here,” mentioned Bogumił Tyszkiewicz, a union chief on 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 firm that operates the mine and the adjoining energy plant. Only his son, who discovered work with a inexperienced vitality firm in one other city, doesn’t rely upon the mine for his livelihood.
Solidarity, the union that spearheaded protests in opposition to communism and is now aligned with Law and Justice, has campaigned vigorously to maintain the Turow mine open. Closing it, mentioned Marek Dolkowski, a neighborhood Solidarity activist, would “mean doom for this whole region.”
Trying to place stress on Polish authorities to maintain their mine open and on the Czech authorities to drop its authorized motion, lots of of Turow miners gathered this yr on a freeway interchange outdoors Bogatynia, paralyzing site visitors in a slim isthmus of Polish territory between the Czech Republic and Germany. They held up an enormous signal: “Hands off Turow mine!”
PGE has began its personal marketing campaign to rally sympathy and help for coal mining, whereas promising to place renewable vitality on the heart of its future plans.
The firm just lately put up posters in Prague and Brussels that characteristic a sad-looking younger lady subsequent to the message, “Why do you want to take away my family’s livelihood?” (The lady, it turned out, had no connection to Bogatynia or coal mining: Her image had been plucked from a inventory picture archive.)
PGE, whose energy plant at Belchatow in central Poland is the European Union’s high greenhouse emitter, in response to environmental teams, declined interview requests in Bogatynia.
Brussels hopes to cut back carbon emissions within the European Union by 55% by 2030 however, environmentalists say, a Polish vitality coverage introduced in February means it would fall far quick. While promising to section out coal, Poland expects the gas’s share of electrical energy technology to nonetheless exceed 50% by 2030, as an alternative of the two% demanded by Brussels.
Widespread worry of what a coal-free future would imply to Bogatynia derives in a big half from the grim expertise of different Polish cities that all of the sudden stopped mining.
When coal mines in Walbrzych, a city to the north, shut down within the Nineties, unemployment and crime soared, prompting jobless miners to dig their very own mines so they may feed their households.
Janusz Kurc, a former Walbrzych coal miner, mentioned he understood why Bogatynia’s miners didn’t need their mine to shut, however “they are talking nonsense.” He added, “Of course it is sad when mines close, but coal is finished.”
The EU is providing almost $20 billion in funds to assist nations shift from fossil fuels. But areas that preserve coal mines going are ineligible.
Bogatynia’s mayor, Wojciech Dobrolowicz, mentioned he want to get European cash and transfer past coal, however his first responsibility was to maintain jobs that exist already. More than half of Bogatynia’s jobs are linked to the mine, he mentioned, and shutting it now “would be a social and economic catastrophe.”
Without taxes paid by the mine and its employees, he mentioned, the city would lose at the least one-third of its income and threat having to close colleges and even hospitals.
Facing an election subsequent month as a candidate for Poland’s governing social gathering, the mayor identified his workplace window to an enormous billboard that he mentioned summed up his place: “We will defend Turow,” it learn.