Environmentalists' plan to lower air pollution costs 40 billion

The Friends of the Earth (Duha) Czech environmental movement has presented its plan to limit air pollution caused by old boilers and stoves using solid fuels and put the costs of their replacement at some 40 billion crowns, its representatives told a press conference today. The movement demands a rise in the energy tax on coal or a change in the rules of boiler subsidies. It says the Finance Ministry is working out an analysis of the possibilities to raise a coal energy tax.