(Oil) lawyers will always find a way. Greenpeace is likely to go bankrupt (at least the US branch) due to a court ruling ordering the organization to pay a $660 million fine for defamation and damages to Energy Transfer – the case concerned protests against the construction of a large pipeline in North Dakota. The case concerns protests 10 years ago (mainly indigenous people protested), and the oil company demanded around 300 million, but the court added more. I am not a fan of some of Greenpeace’s actions (like climbing cooling towers in Polish power plants), but finishing off activists with the help of lawyers is a brutal move by the fuel sector. It will undoubtedly be reflected in further actions eliminating local community protests. We hope the lawyers will have more pipelines and leaks next to their homes and children’s schools – karma always comes back.

Urgent appeal to raise emission standards. In response to the avalanche of warnings from the Government Communication Office (RBC) about exceedances of PM10 and PM2.5 particulate matter concentration standards in cities (especially Warsaw), some political parties are urgently calling for an increase (at least twofold) in emission standards and alert thresholds. In their justification, they point out the negative impact of warnings on public sentiment, the uncertain outcome of scientific research that does not clearly state whether the dust is harmful, and the fact that the dust cannot be seen with the naked eye or under a magnifying glass (and PM2.5 is completely invisible), and if someone has a lung problem, there is no cure so that they can buy additional private health insurance…

Another pay rise for mining company employees. As it is pre-election season, there is talk of another special bonus for the coal mining sector. Even though subsidies from our taxes will double this year to approx. PLN 14 billion, there is already talk of an extra PLN 3,000 bonus for employees. It is unlikely to be a profit bonus (there will be more years of losses) or a productivity bonus (productivity is falling and is at least several times lower than that of foreign competitors). Nevertheless, the mood in the sector is good, and only the trade unions are calling on all political parties to organize another election (or maybe even two rounds) in 2026, which will enable the upward trend in wage changes to continue.

Turkish series about the windmill law. This time, we can talk about a breakthrough (well, almost). After about 15 months of plot twists, inter-ministerial battles, modifications, additions and discussions, putting in and taking out, the Chancellery of the Prime Minister (interestingly, in circular mode) adopted the bill and sent it to the legislative stage in parliament. As a reminder, apart from the neat packaging of many paragraphs, it is about reducing the distance limits of windmills from built-up areas from 700 to 500 meters (which could probably be changed in a week with one sentence). Seeing the glass half full, optimists are already rubbing their hands in anticipation of new onshore wind farm projects, while pessimists, looking at the bottom, expect it to take at least another 15 months. The series is more Turkish than Brazilian because in Brazilian, it’s always about the same thing, and we know that although it’s long, it will always end well, and in Turkish, everyone knows what’s going on. Still, in each episode, there are plot twists, and the viewer is kept in suspense.