Activists Occupy German Coal Plant in Protest, Police Say By Sarah Syed February 2, 2020

Activists on the site of Datteln 4, Feb. 2. Photographer: Caroline Seidel/picture alliance via Getty Images

A large group of protesters broke through a gate at the Datteln-4 power station and gained access to the site, local police said Sunday in a tweet.

More than 120 people illegally entered the premises, Polizei NRW RE said. The operator of the power plant outside Dortmund in western Germany’s industrial heartland has filed criminal charges against the protesters, the police said in another tweet Sunday.

“The police in coordination with the public prosecutor’s office will initiate criminal proceedings against all persons,” authorities said.

German utility Uniper aims to close most of its coal plants by 2025, but intends to keep the Datteln-4 plant operating until 2038, Reuters reported in January, citing two people familiar with the matter. Last year anti-coal protesters in east Germany forced one of the country’s biggest plants to reduce output to the minimum.

“We cannot allow, in light of the climate crisis, for another coal power station to join the power grid,” Kathrin Henneberger of the protest movement Ende Gelaende said in a interview with Reuters Sunday. Henneberger called Datteln “a nail in the coffin for our future,” according to Reuters.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-02/activists-occupy-german-coal-plant-in-protest-police-say