Germany reaches payment deal to phase out coal
(WorldNews Germany)

BERLIN - Germany will pay utility companies billions of euros to speed up the shutdown of their coal-fired power plants as part of the country´s efforts to fight climate change, the government said Thursday. The agreement reached after late-night deliberations between federal ministers and representatives of four coal-mining states removes a key hurdle in Germany´s plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades. Some regions, particularly in the less prosperous east, are heavily dependent on mining lignite, or brown coal. Together with imported bituminous - or black - coal it provides about a third of...