The government amended the Forestry Code by emergency ordinance to facilitate the removal from the forest fund of land necessary to continue the extraction activity at the lignite quarries Roșiuța and Jilț Sud of the coal-fired energy producer Oltenia Energy Complex, controlled by the Ministry of Economy , according to Profit.ro.

The miners from Roșiuța launched a protest action, accusing the lack of work fronts and the risk of losing their jobs, caused by the lack of necessary approvals for deforestation. In Roșiuța there is a 2.6 hectares area of forest land purchased by the Oltenia Energy Complex for the extension of the quarry.

The Government also argued the need to adopt the GEO through “the consequences of the decrease by 9 million tons of lignite production and implicitly of electricity production, generated by the impossibility of continuing public works and national interest, respectively the decrease of balancing capacity of the National Energy System at risk of blackout at the state level and the fact that it will not be possible to build up coal stocks for the winter peak 2020-2021.” The executive also mentioned as an argument “the increase of the electricity price at the level of the final consumer and implicitly the appearance of some social problems by introducing at least 4,000 unemployed workers with effect in the social insurance budget.”