Postimees Digest, Wednesday, March 6
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POSTIMEES
Oil shale development plan opposed.
Estonia's new oil shale development plan currently being assembled at the environment ministry is in danger of never seeing the light of day as both the State Chancellery and the finance ministry find that the new energy economy development plan already includes items pertaining to oil shale mining volumes and that a separate development plan is therefore unnecessary.
The current oil shale plan, set to expire in 2015, prescribes a mining ceiling of 20 million tons a year and reads that volumes should be gradually lowered by developing nuclear energy or distributed energy production. Oil shale mining volumes have actually grown on an annual basis and will continue to do so as the industry's need for the raw material is estimated to reach 24-30 million tons by 2016.
"Oil shale is the most valuable but also the most burdensome natural resource Estonia has. It would be rather misguided to stoop to bureaucratic disputes over whether we need a proper plan of how to handle its value in an environmentally sensible way. Of course we do!" said Minister of the Environment Keit-Pentus Rosimannus.
Wholesaler accused of offering bribe
A wholesale company and its two chiefs face court trial accused of offering bribes to purchasing manager of a large retailer for every carton of juice sold.
The accusation brought by North Regional Prosecutor’s Office, extraordinary in its legal content, can be summed up as follows:
The purchasing manager of a leading retail chain in Estonia ought to have waived claims to additional benefit from AS Haljas on non-alcoholic beverages sold in their stores, and to have further increased assortment of products provided by AS Haljas, thereby boosting the accused company’s turnover.
Estonians create the least domestic waste.
Eurobarometer data suggests that Estonians created just 238 kilograms of domestic waste per person in 2011, making for the lowest figure among EU members. The European average was 503 kilograms per person while Denmark produces the most domestic waste per person at 718 kilograms.