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Lignite excavator in the Garzweiler opencast mine: As the only opencast mine
Photo:
INA FASSBENDER / AFP
Germany wants to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038.
But while the first lignite power plants are to be shut down this year, there is a guarantee of existence for the Garzweiler II opencast mine operated by the RWE energy company in the Rhenish district.
According to their own statements, 36 residents of the opencast mine have now lodged a constitutional complaint against this Garzweiler paragraph in the coal exit law.
This represents a "single opencast mine without any justification as necessary for the energy industry," said her lawyer Dirk Teßmer.
Teßmer was convinced that the regulation did not stand before the Federal Constitutional Court.
The rights of his clients should "stand above the promotion of climate-damaging lignite".
"People are losing their homes to mining lignite"
The organizers of the community "Human Rights before Mining Rights" announced that they wanted to prevent further villages from being destroyed by the lignite mining there.
"Everyone should know that people in Germany are still losing their homes to mining lignite - and that with the full approval of the federal government," said Barbara Oberherr from the threatened village of Keyenberg, who is one of the founders of the initiative.
The coal exit law that came into force in August regulates the gradual exit from coal-fired power generation.
The Garzweiler paragraph 48 was justified with the "energy policy and energy economic necessity".
In the years 2026, 2029 and 2032 a review will be carried out to see whether an exit is possible by the end of 2035.
The lignite power plant operators are to be compensated with 4.35 billion euros from the federal government for the closure of their plants.
There are also compensations for withdrawing from hard coal.
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apr / AFP / dpa