Why STOP? Read in the English

The website is a form of the answer to the actions of the Steering Committee in the matter of building an opencast mine in the area of Lubin and Legnica.

We are primarily inhabitants of these cities and the surroundings. We are the young generation who has bound their lives and future with the region. That is why we are not indifferent to the policy of exploiting energy sources which seems to be an insult to the XXI century. The policy which devastates the natural environment which has already been harmed by years of negligence and technological activities of copper industry.

In the open letter to the Prime Minister, the Steering Committee which represents coal industry, worries about the energy safety of the country in its own way meaning that it ignores energy sources other than coal. Under the mask of threats of power cuts, a powerful and reach energy lobby is laboriously clearing its path to the next investment – a power plant together with an opencast mine built on our areas. The venture is being launched by means of manipulating facts about costs, influence over the environment and expert opinions commissioned to institutions which seem to be in favour of building the mine ( a famous case of expert opinions on Lake Gopło in Kruszwica and the drying of nearby basins which ‘slightly’ departed form the truth and the case of which will probably lead to the EU intervention).

If the environmental care were honest, the Committee would take the first example of our neighbours the Czech who are far ahead of us in their energy development. Although the Czech have two nuclear power stations (120 and 280 km from the Polish border) they are already planning to build the third one. At the same time they are proposing a long term projection of aiding investments in renewable energy sources whose share in each EU country’s energy score will have to grow. The polish government is only faking such actions only to gain media support and still has not established any effective system of aiding renewable energy in both small competing power stations and individual users. Such investments are even blocked and the evidence has been provided by entrepreneurs willing to invest in renewable energy sources. What about the realities of the Steering Committee and coal industry which use their monopolistic position? Generally speaking coal energy will soon cost far more than it is now officially estimated for the purpose of the deceived general public. That is why it is worth asking the question – whose interests is the government acting in? The producers or the consumers?

In Poland the share of coal in producing electricity is estimated at 94.8% (according to PSE Operator SA-2005 - 55% in all Europe) and it is probably the highest number in all European Union. However we need to remember that EU has obliged Poland to keep the limit of greenhouse gases emission and to increase the amount of renewable energy sources in energy production to 9% in year 2010 and 20% in year 2020. Not honouring these obligations shall result in paying huge compensation from our taxes and energy bills thus what is the logic behind building yet another opencast mine and power station in Poland? The answer is known only to the coal lobby represented by the Steering Committee and the government which silently favours investments which will ruin the natural environment and residential areas.

We, the inhabitants of the Lubin-Legnica area, strongly object not only to the short-sightedness of the country’s energy policy but also to our region’s environmental degradation. Degradation of the region which owing to the mine only in its few areas can provide us with a place to escape, live and relax in clean, tumult-free environment. At the same time we are indignant at the government’s ignorance, its listening only to the coal lobby’s opinions and the lack of interest in the actual state of our cities and villages. A government which does not take into account its citizens’ opinions is not worth representing them …

We ask everybody who is not indifferent to the fate of our region’s natural environment for support and help of any kind. All ideas, comments and tips shall be sent to: stop@stop-odkrywce.pl