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Environmental activists occupied part of the new Datteln 4 coal plant for several hours on Tuesday before being removed by police, . It was the second demonstration against the plant this month, after on February 2. The coal-fired power plant is scheduled to come online this summer, despite Germany’s plans to phase out all coal power by 2038. The federal government and the state government in North-Rhine Westphalia argue that the plant, which has been in the works for more than a decade, will replace older, less efficient coal plants and ultimately reduce carbon emissions. But environmentalists say it makes no sense to bring a brand new source of coal power online when Germany is already struggling to meet its climate targets. "We demand an immediate coal exit," the activists said in a statement . "The commissioning of a new power plant at this time is a scandal."

Meanwhile, Greenpeace finding that a majority of Germans oppose the Datteln 4 plant. The survey of more than a thousand people, conducted by the research group Kantar, found that 68 percent generally oppose bringing a new coal-fired plant online.