Germany’s coal exit is threatening the country’s supply of gypsum, Steven Hanke reports in Tagesspiegel Background. More than half of the gypsum used in Germany is derived from the exhaust gases of domestic coal-fired power plants, and the federal government has yet to present a plan to replace the enormous quantities of gypsum that will be lost when the country’s coal plants are shuttered, writes Hanke, according to CLEW.

While there are alternatives, such as natural gypsum, finding new sources will take some time and they come at a price. The expansion of gypsum mining, the most obvious solution, is already facing stiff resistance. Most of Germany’s natural gypsum reserves lay dormant in Thuringia. The state’s premier, Bodo Ramelow, has already warned that Thuringia’s scenic Harz Mountains are in danger of being excavated and quarried.

Germany consumes around 10 million tonnes of the mineral every year for a wide range of uses, from blackboard chalk for schools, to medical plaster casts and, above all, in construction.