Fossil fuels use divides EU member nations

In Poland, for example, leaders are disinclined to cut coal use, which helps limit dependence on Russian oil and natural gas. And with a 15 percent unemployment rate — the EU’s highest — cutting jobs in an industry that employs roughly 200,000 people could be political suicide.

“For the government, it’s better to have 100 people working in mines than one or two men working in wind generation,” said Jaroslaw Mroczek, president of the Polish Wind Energy Association.
Although eastern Europe might be trailing in clean energy use, it shares the West’s concerns about climate change and other environmental problems, and about dependence on foreign oil and natural gas. The drive for greater energy independence got a push last year from Russian disruptions of supplies to Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia.

And Zbigniew Kamienski, a Polish Economy Ministry expert, noted that eastern Europeans still consume much less energy per person than their richer western neighbors.

“We need to remember,” Kamienski said, “that consumption of energy is still two to three times lower than in the old EU member states.”

Houston Chronicle