Just got the bill from PGNiG for the gas for January and February, when we had that cold snap. 1,357 PLN or about $425. So that's $200/mo for a three-room apartment, in a country where a grocery clerk might bring home $650/mo.
I was told that the price of natural gas here is six times what we pay in the US. The bill says we used 679 cubic meters, net value (wartość netto) 760.96 so it's about 1.12 PLN per cubic meter (not to mention the 23% VAT added on top of that). It looks like PG&E is charging customers about $1 per 100 cubic feet, which is about 3 PLN per 100 cubic feet, which is about 1 PLN per cubic meter. That doesn't look like six times to me. Hmmm. I'll have to look at our gas bills when I get home.
But it adds context to today's headline Coal-reliant Poland increasingly out of step with Europe on climate change. The article actually says out loud something I'd deduced a while back:
Poland relies on coal for 93 percent of its electricity and that adopting the 2050 roadmap would cause Poland’s economy 1 percent of GDP growth per year through 2030, if not longer.
Poland otherwise depends heavily on imported gas and oil for other energy needs. Most comes from Russia, a dependence that Poland resents and is trying to free itself of with plans to build nuclear power plants in several years and with an ongoing search for shale gas.
If you know anything about history, you can definitely appreciate the "resents" part. It seems to me they're totally justified in their position to the EU
Here's a local take on it from Gazeta Wyborska with even more context (though the editorial is a little wandery).
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