Czech ministry contracts out thorny environmental decision

The Czech Minister for the Environment Jan Dusík has sidestepped a decision over an environmental impact assessment for ČEZ’s modernisation of a controversial coal plant. The assessment will now be given to a foreign company. Czech power giant ČEZ is planning to invest 25 billion crowns at Pruněřov in the northwest of the Czech Republic. The name of the company tasked to carry out the assessment will be published by the end of the week. Czech and international environmental groups as well as the small Pacific island state of Micronesia oppose the expansion of the plant on grounds that it will cause environmental damage and contribute to the raising of sea levels. ČEZ claims that the new plant will have a 39-percent efficiency rating.