The Dutch government Friday unveiled plans to shut the country's two oldest coal-fired electricity plants by 2025, as it seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The other three remaining plants, using coal to produce electricity, will have to close down by 2030, the year the Dutch has vowed to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 49 percent.

Economy Minister Eric Wiebes said the ban on the oldest plants, located in Geertruidenberg and Amsterdam, was even stricter than had been initially envisaged by the cabinet.

Under draft legislation to go before parliament, the two plants must now close by December 31, 2024.

"This is the fastest way to get rid of coal. Everyone knows that coal is not a sustainable way to generate electricity," Wiebes told the public broadcaster NOS.

The decision comes only two months after the new coalition government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte also scaled back production at Europe's biggest gas field after a raft of damaging earthquakes.

Extraction from the Groningen gas field will be gradually cut back and halted all together by 2030.

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U.S. wants input on coal plants of the future
Washington DC (UPI) May 10, 2018
Stakeholders are called to submit information that could support the design and operation of small-scale coal plants of the future, the U.S. government said. The objective of the request is to solicit stakeholder input on ways to develop small-scale plants that would use coal, but with lower emissions. These plants of the future are envisioned to be modular for lower cost, designed using advanced methods, small scale, highly efficient - greater than 40 percent efficiency --, and able to loa ... read more