Despite rumblings to the contrary, Portugal’s new environment minister Duarte Cordeiro told parliament today during the debate on the government’s four and a half year programme that reactivation of the coal-fired electricity power stations in Pego and Sines is “out of the question”. The idea was mooted as a means of helping Europe become less dependent on Russian gas. Mr Cordeiro said it would actually make the bloc “more dependent” as Russia also “dominates the coal market’. Previously, former director of energy Mário Guedes criticised what he called the ‘dangerously precipitous’ closure of Pego and Sines for showing “a complete lack of strategic perception”
