Conservative German state government mulls “new approach on coal” following court ruling

The conservative government of western German coal state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is considering rethinking its energy policy and to formulate “a new basic approach to coal”, Kirsten Bialdiga, Reinhard Kowalewsky und Thomas Reisener write in the Rheinische Post. It comes  after a court ruling stopped the clearing of the embattled Hambach Forest for a nearby lignite [brown coal] mine. The head of the conservative CDU’s parliamentary group, Bodo Löttgen, said the coalition of his party and the pro-business FDP should rethink its coal policy after the national coal exit commission has finished its work, which is scheduled for the end of the year. According to the article, senior members of the regional CDU fear “a new mass-movement against lignite” is forming in NRW that state premier Armin Laschet has to address.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW article Court’s halt to forest clearing fans talk of easier German coal exit and the factsheet Germany’s three lignite mining regions for more information.