Lignite fund wrong way to deal with coal’s financial legacy – commentary
A state-managed fund for dealing with the financial legacy of lignite mining in Germany is the wrong way to ensure that the extraction’s long-term effects are dealt with properly, Antje Höning writes in a commentary for the General Anzeiger Bonn. Contrary to the existing nuclear fund, which the state uses to deal with the so-called “eternal costs” of safely storing nuclear waste, a similar fund called for by the Green Party for lignite mine renaturation is unnecessary, she writes. “The energy companies are responsible for the restoration of their mines – so the state has to leave them the money to do it,” Höning says. Germany’s energy companies are financially healthy enough to accomplish this task, “and whoever calls for a lignite fund intends to bring about an immediate coal exit. Germany’s coal exit commission must not allow this to happen,” she writes.
See ÍţÁ¦˛ĘÍ淨’s Commission watch and the factsheet Germany’s coal exit commission for background.