What goes on in Poland on the 19th of January.
The government will handle the issue of energy poverty
In this year’s state budget, PLN 170 million (€ 42 million) will be spent for fighting energy poverty under smog fighting – said the minister of entrepreneurship and technology Jadwiga Emilewicz.
As Emilewicz said, fighting energy poverty is „a new goal that we want to handle this year”. – We want to stop giving the money to those who have been taking it for seven years for house insulating and replacing boilers who can really afford it themselves – explained the minister.
As he stressed, this is just one of financing sources. She reminded that the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW) disposes of PLN 2 billion for fighting smog. She also marked that there are no right regulations in Poland and reminded that the government accepted the „Clean Air” program last year. – This is the first government that took up systemic activities for fighting for clean air in Poland – minister Emilewicz stressed.
According to a lately report conducted by the Institute of Structural Research (IBS) on energy poverty, the scale of the phenomenon decreases, but it still concerns around 4,6 million people. The percentage of the energetically poor dropped from 14,5 per cent in 2012 to 12,2 in 2016. In absolute terms, the amount of people dropped by 880 thousand people.
PGNiG discovers new gas deposits
Polish gas giant PGNiG has discovered new gas deposits in the southeastern Podkarpackie province, the company has announced in a statement. The state-owned gas monopoly drilled two wells near its existing operations in the region of Podkarpacie, discovering two methane-rich natural gas streams.
„PGNiG has been extracting natural gas in Podkarpacie for over 60 years, but we are still discovering new deposits,” said PGNiG chairman Piotr Woźniak. The CEO explained that the discovery is a result of a recently developed method, which allows the location of gas deposits to be determined with high accuracy.
At present, PGNiG holds 23 licenses for exploration and appraisal of crude oil and natural gas deposits along with 25 licenses that also allow for extraction. The discovery comes at a time when Poland is concentrating on limiting its dependence on Russian gas.