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Poland has stopped importing coal from Russia since the war against Ukraine.
This fuels the demand for domestic heating coal.
Fearing shortages, some are now queuing with their cars right outside the gates of a mine.
It's not a traffic jam, it's a queue.
Despite the summer heat, a number of people are waiting in their cars and trucks in front of a coal mine in Bogdanka, in eastern Poland.
Some of them have been waiting for days to stock up on heating coal in the company.
Artur, a pensioner, drove about 30 kilometers to the coal mine on Tuesday, hoping to bring home several tons of coal for himself and his family.
Arthur, pensioner:
»People camp, sleep in the car, eat here. There is no shop here. You can't leave, you have to take care of your place. I still remember the times of the People's Republic of Poland and the communist times, but I never thought that we would go back to something even worse.«
Artur lives in one of around 3.8 million households in Poland that depend on coal for heating - that's about a quarter of all households.
They have been struggling with bottlenecks and price increases since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The European Union has imposed an embargo on Russian coal.
Poland banned the purchases with immediate effect in April.
Poland extracts over 50 million tons of coal from its own mines every year.
But imported coal – largely from Russia – is a common commodity in Poland.
The charcoal is competitively priced and sold as briquettes, which is more suitable for domestic use.
Since the imported coal has become unobtainable, many people fear that fuel could become scarce in winter.
The demand is correspondingly high.
Like all Polish coal mines, Bogdanka usually sells most of the coal mined to power plants.
Last year, less than one percent went to private individuals.
The logistics for selling to individual customers are therefore lacking.
Dorota Choma, speaker Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka:
»We have improved our workflow by introducing a two-shift system from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. It's been like this for a few weeks now. This enabled us to shorten the queue by 200 meters and now serve 250 households.«
The Bogdanka mine, like other state-controlled plants, was forced to ration the sale of coal.
The restrictions are designed to prevent coal from being hoarded and resold, or even selling spots in the line of cars.
In Bogdanka you can buy a maximum of 6 tons of the coveted heating coal - if you have a lot of patience.
Piotr Maciejewski, farmer:
"I do not live far from here. At least I can sleep at home and the tractor just stays here.«
Poland has been a harsh critic of EU climate policy for years and a staunch supporter of coal, which generates 80 percent of the country's electricity.
However, domestic coal production has declined year after year as mining from deeper layers of the earth becomes more and more expensive.