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A Nazi-era law protects coal companies to do whatever they please. Greta arrested. [1]

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Date: 2023-01-18

Greta Thornburg was arrested by riot police to protect fossil fuel interests near Lützerath, a German village already demolished for an expansion of a coal strip=mine.

When are the fascists and climate criminals going to arrest the billionaires destroying every fabric of life on Earth? Instead they arrest those trying to save life on Earth Greta Thunberg detained at coal protest in Germany. Go Green, Twitter

Below are excerpts on the brave climate protestors in Germany fighting strip-mine coal extraction permitted due to a 1937 law still on the books. The fossil fool industry can play with the lives of every life on earth without any consequence.

There is in the minds of most people a belief that Germany is a shining example of what a Green nation should look like. Warts tarnished that image this week as attention was brought to a Lignite coal strip mine that thousands of protestors hoped to shut down.

According to Reuters the owner of the mine, ”RWE (RWEG.DE), agreed with the government that it could demolish Luetzerath in exchange for its faster exit from coal and the saving of five villages originally slated for destruction.”

Lignite, often referred to as brown coal,[1] is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%,[1][2] and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat content. When removed from the ground, it contains a very high amount of moisture which partially explains its low carbon content. Lignite is mined all around the world and is used almost exclusively as a fuel for steam-electric power generation. The combustion of lignite produces less heat for the amount of carbon dioxide and sulfur released than other ranks of coal. As a result, environmental advocates have characterized lignite as the most harmful coal to human health.[3]

The coal operation is located in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Riot police were sent to crush the protests.

From Reuters:

LUETZERATH, Germany, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Climate campaigner Greta Thunberg was detained alongside other activists on Tuesday during protests against the demolition of a village to make way for a coal mine expansion but was released after an identity check, according to police. Thunberg was held while protesting at the opencast coal mine of Garzweiler 2, some 9 km (5.6 miles) from the village of Luetzerath, after police warned that the group would be removed by force if they did not move away from the edge of the mine. Riot police backed by bulldozers removed activists from buildings in the abandoned village last week, with only a few left in trees and an underground tunnel by last weekend, but protesters including Thunberg remained at the site staging a sit-in into TuesdaY.

Greta was arrested today, 1/18/2023 for the second time this week.

x Police remove Greta Thunberg from an anti-coal protest in Germany for the second time in a week.#GretaThunberg pic.twitter.com/hMM7wp2q9C — News Without Lie (@newswithoutlie) January 18, 2023

The Swedish climate activist addressed the around 6,000 protesters who marched towards Luetzerath on Saturday, calling the expansion of the mine a "betrayal of present and future generations." "Germany is one of the biggest polluters in the world and needs to be held accountable," she said.

x this is what the police defend - the giant machinery destroying the earthpic.twitter.com/X4JwHyWODL — ⛈️John Hyphen☄️ (@JohnHyphen) January 12, 2023

NPR

The Garzweiler mine is one of three massive open-pit coal mines in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The type of coal produced at the mines, lignite, is responsible for about 20% of Germany's carbon emissions.

The three mines have been expanding for decades. Over the years, about 50 villages in the region, many of them centuries old, have been evicted and bulldozed to make way for the mines.

Lützerath, about 15 miles from Germany's western border, has been the focal point of the protests since a court approved its destruction about a decade ago.

I love the Druid wizard; he doesn’t sink in the mud, tee hee.

x Breaking news, mud wizard defeats police at an anti-coal-mine protest in Germany.



Losing it over him placing a small sign in front of them as they struggle, The way the cop throws it increasingly far away like three times, & he's magically immune to getting stuck himself 😂 pic.twitter.com/0hdNPX03x6 — Ben Pitt @[email protected] (@robotduck) January 15, 2023

“We can't save the world by playing by the rules because the rules have to be changed.”

The police are gassing climate protesters.

x Around 6,000 protesters - including climate activist Greta Thunberg - marched through mud and rain to the German village of Luetzerath on Saturday, according to a police estimate, demonstrating against the expansion of an opencast lignite mine. https://t.co/JiL8QwLNl8 — Reuters Science News (@ReutersScience) January 14, 2023

Inside Climate News reports on the Nazi-era coal law.

Since the Nazi era, Germany’s powerful lignite industry has been able to mine where it wants to, in broad disregard of environmental and human-rights consequences. And supported by legislation passed in 1937, which declared the mining of raw materials a “national priority,” industry is still able to relocate people and communities at will. But now an upsurge in the generation of renewable electricity, a rising groundswell of public opposition and a surprising David-vs-Goliath legal case are providing glimmers of hope to those who would like to end Big Coal’s swagger.

x In Germany, villages are being torn down for coal – the most polluting energy source on the planet. But isn't Germany trying to transition out of coal and fossil fuels? DW Planet A's reporter @KiyoDoerrer spoke to local residents and protestors to find out more: pic.twitter.com/YaWhyUx3vl — DW Deutsche Welle (@DeutscheWelle) October 24, 2022

From the Library of Congress. “Germany: Law on Phasing-Out Coal-Powered Energy by 2038 Enters into Force.

(Aug. 31, 2020) On August 14, 2020, the Act to Reduce and End Coal-Powered Energy and Amend Other Laws (Coal Phase-Out Act) entered into force in Germany. The Coal Phase-Out Act aims to gradually reduce and eventually end the use of coal-powered energy in Germany by 2038 in order to “reduce emissions and provide the public with a safe, a cost-effective, an efficient, and a climate-compatible energy supply.” No new coal-fired plants may start operating after August 14, 2020, with the exception of those that received a license to operate before January 29, 2020. The act offers financial compensation to operators of coal-fired plants. In addition, it amends the German Renewable Energy Sources Act to codify the goal to raise the percentage of renewables to 65% by 2030.

I'm sorry, but you can stick a fork in us long before 2038 if fossil fuels are still being burned.

Police Brutality

x Germany plans to destroy this village for a coal mine. Thousands are gathering to stop it: https://t.co/TZwdjWz81a



This is the police violence people defending our climate are being met with.#ActOnClimate #LUETZERATH #climate #energy #GreenNewDeal pic.twitter.com/yGTvY4wysB — Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) January 16, 2023

The Coal Phase-Out Act has been criticized by the opposition parties in parliament and environmental groups as delaying the necessary exit from coal energy and paying too much compensation to coal-plant operators. Furthermore, in the opinion of Annalena Baerbock from the party Alliance 90/The Greens, the act will make it more difficult for future governments to fulfill their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement. Lastly, the exception carved out for the anthracite-fired Datteln 4 plant, which started operating in the summer of 2020, and the designation of the Garzweiler II coal plant as “essential for energy purposes” have been heavily criticized as counterproductive and going against the recommendations of the “Coal Commission.” The coalition parties, on the other hand, have stated that the agreed-on coal phase-out is historically unique because the agreement makes it possible to absorb the structural changes by creating new jobs before the old ones are eliminated. Moreover, the Social Democratic Party of Germany has emphasized that the Coal Phase-Out Act for the first time codifies the goal to raise the percentage of renewables to 65% by 2030. In the view of the minister of economy, economic strength goes hand in hand with environmental compatibility, and the Coal Phase-Out Act makes Germany the only industrialized country to exit both coal and nuclear energy.

The fossil fuel industry and its enablers are true terrorists.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/1/18/2147513/-A-nazi-era-law-protects-coal-companies-to-do-whatever-they-please-Greta-arrested

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