Estonia 200 party condemns campaign against wind turbines

TALLINN - The extended board of Estonia 200, a junior partner of the Estonian government coalition, adopted a political statement on Saturday, criticizing political parties that stir up hysteria against the development of green, clean, and competitively priced energy production for electoral gain.

"The fight against wind farms is, in reality, a fight in favor of expensive and highly polluting electricity from the last century. For Estonia 200, this is a matter of values -- what kind of environment and natural heritage we leave for future generations. Unfortunately, previous governments postponed energy policy decisions indefinitely, and now we are paying a high price for that indecision," leader of Estonia 200 Kristina Kallas said.

Kallas noted that the government's energy plan is based on the principle that Estonia should have clean and competitively priced energy. 

"Estonia 200 considers it essential to build energy production capacity from wind, solar, and nuclear power as quickly as possible. Energy storage also plays a key role in this equation, enabling greater use of renewable energy and minimizing market price fluctuations," she added.

"Producing energy from oil shale is yesterday's solution -- it pollutes the environment, is expensive, and will only become more costly over time. In the Estonia of tomorrow, we must replace oil shale energy with nuclear power to provide our industry with stable and predictably priced electricity. The introduction of nuclear energy is therefore an integral part of Estonia's long-term energy strategy," Kallas said.