As SPIEGEL reports, two weeks ago the regional court already nixed the land-use plan, because certain zoning and environmental laws weren't heeded.
Basically, the court said that Northrhine-Westphalia's emissions reduction plan allows only for the replacement of coal-fired power plant capacity, and the land-use plan did not say anything about what capacity is replaced.
The same argument may be used in future lawsuits against the two other Ruhr Area plants mentioned (Krefeld and Lünen). *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
German judges spurn coal - Die Tageszeitung/ Presseurop German justice is going green. For the first time ever, German judges have stopped the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Datteln, in the Ruhr region. Among other things, the Münster court argues, much to the satisfaction of the Tageszeitung, that the new power plant "would not contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions". And this is not just "any old plant or any old ruling", points out the Berlin daily: according to its builder, E.ON AG, one of the world's biggest utilities, the plant was a prototype of a new generation of coal-fired facilities with the highest output in Europe, generating 1,100 megawatts, "almost as much as a nuclear power plant". The only thing is the facility would have given off 0.73% of German CO2 emissions without even replacing a single existing plant. *Consequently, its construction would have run counter to the objective set out in the regional development plan: to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. "The judges have done well to remind us that actions speak louder than words," concludes the TAZ.
German justice is going green. For the first time ever, German judges have stopped the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Datteln, in the Ruhr region. Among other things, the Münster court argues, much to the satisfaction of the Tageszeitung, that the new power plant "would not contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions". And this is not just "any old plant or any old ruling", points out the Berlin daily: according to its builder, E.ON AG, one of the world's biggest utilities, the plant was a prototype of a new generation of coal-fired facilities with the highest output in Europe, generating 1,100 megawatts, "almost as much as a nuclear power plant". The only thing is the facility would have given off 0.73% of German CO2 emissions without even replacing a single existing plant. *Consequently, its construction would have run counter to the objective set out in the regional development plan: to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. "The judges have done well to remind us that actions speak louder than words," concludes the TAZ.
So this is about the Datteln plant mentioned by DoDo above. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
