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Trade unions: State shutting down dozens of coal facilities with no replacement, cause for energy crisis
The explosion of prices in energy is caused by the lack of energy, after the state closed tens of coal facilities from 2008 to this year, without replacing them, informs a release sent on Tuesday by the National Federation of Trade Unions in Energy "UNIVERS" and the National Mines-Energy Federation.
"The explosion of energy prices is explained by politicians and analysts in all sorts of ways, almost all tying it to the increase of prices at the European level. (...) Nobody is however addressing the elephant in the room, nobody's saying the real cause that made these bills possible: the lack of energy. Between 2008-2022 tens of production facilities were shut down without anything being put in place. Or, if something was put in place, other types of energy were used. Coal energy, which works on the basis of the load curve was shut down, and instead we have renewable energy, which you either have or don't have, depending on wind and sun," the release mentions.
According to the source, unlike EU states, Romania did not replace the decommissioned capacities, even though it is one of the smallest polluters in Europe.
"Politicians, with the President at the helm, put in their programs combating climate change. So has all of Europe. Only unlike the EU, we took no measures to replace the capacities that were decommissioned. (...) Romania is one of the smallest European polluters. In 2017 it had already reduced its GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions by around 50 pct, far exceeding the 20 pct by 2020 target launched in the EU. Romania's contribution to CO2 pollution is around 2 pct, at around 100 thousand tonnes a year. (...) Only Finland and Estonia fare better than us. We are ten times less polluting than Germany, 7.4 times than France, 4.5 times than Poland, at the state level," show the two trade unions.
The UNIVERS National Federation of Trade Unions in Energy and the Mines-Energy National Federation emphasize that energy from renewable resources will have to be complementary to that from coal and nuclear resources, not a replacement.
The two unions request the immediate involvement of the Government and the Supreme Council for the Country's Defence and the investigation of those responsible for the situation that shows Romanians paying the most expensive energy and gas in Europe.
The two trade unions are representative trade unions at the level of their sector of activity - Energy, Oil, Gas and Energy Mining -, representing over 80 pct of the employees that work in electric and thermal energy production units.