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Case study: The Battle for Jezeří Chateau: Difference between revisions
Case study: The Battle for Jezeří Chateau (view source)
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Other important energy policy stakeholders are also in favour of breaching the mining limits. The head of the Energy Regulatory Office, Alena Vitásková, for example, supports mining past the current limits in order to lower energy prices for consumers. "If the coal limits are breached, heating from coal will be the cheapest for customers, that’s obvious. I’m in favour of breaching the limits – that way we’ll get an energy source cheaper than gas and renewable sources.”<ref>"ERU head Vitásková: I’m for breaching the coal mining limits." Hospodařský noviny, 4 August 2011. [http://m.ihned.cz/c1-52481830-sefka-eru-vitaskova-jsem-pro-prolomeni-limitu-tezby-uhli]</ref> | Other important energy policy stakeholders are also in favour of breaching the mining limits. The head of the Energy Regulatory Office, Alena Vitásková, for example, supports mining past the current limits in order to lower energy prices for consumers. "If the coal limits are breached, heating from coal will be the cheapest for customers, that’s obvious. I’m in favour of breaching the limits – that way we’ll get an energy source cheaper than gas and renewable sources.”<ref>"ERU head Vitásková: I’m for breaching the coal mining limits." Hospodařský noviny, 4 August 2011. [http://m.ihned.cz/c1-52481830-sefka-eru-vitaskova-jsem-pro-prolomeni-limitu-tezby-uhli]</ref> | ||
Support nowadays for maintaining the limits and opposing expanded mining operations is led by a coalition of national NGOs, local civic associations and elected municipal officials from the towns most at threat from the lifting of the limits, e.g. Horní Jiřetín and Litvínov. | |||
The most prominent opponent to expanded mining from among local municipal politicians is Vladimír Buřt, deputy mayor of Horní Jiřetín, who has been a member of the local council there since 2003. Buřt won a seat on the Ustí regional council as a member of the Green Party on the Hnutí PRO kraj ticket in the 2012 regional elections. He also has a very personal interest in protecting Jezeří Chateau - he resides in the chateau buildings with his partner, the chateau castellan. | |||
Buřt has stated his conviction that in relation to Horní Jiřetín, there is little coal remaining following termination of coal mining operations in town’s cadastre in the late 1980s that made extensive use of deep mining technology, and therefore Horní Jiřetín represents more of a blockage to mining further afield rather than as a site resting on large coal reserves. “A large part of Jiřetín is built on the slopes of the Ore Mountains. If the miners wanted to get the rest of the coal directly under Jiřetín, they’d not only have to mine the built-up area, but also much of the slopes of the Ore Mountains. They'd have to remove the beech forests and hillsides up to another one hundred metres above the town. That in itself is incredible barbarity, and it’s nonsense of course from an economic point of view.”<ref>Deník.cz, 22.2.2010. “Vladimír Buřt: Horní Jiřetín will certainly remain”.[http://mostecky.denik.cz/zpravy_region/vladimir-burt-horni-jiretin-tu-urcite-zustane.html](Czech)</ref> | |||
==Resources== | ==Resources== | ||