Polish Coal, Energy and Environment - Chances and Dangers

The state of the contemporary environment largely determines the industry especially level of its development and introduced innovations to the technology. Mining industry plays a leading role in providing all kind of mineral resources to national economy, but also deeply interferes in the environment at the both, exploration stage, exploitation as well as after the end of mining activity. Modern environmental engineering has to deal with the current ecological challenges and should be in line with the professor Walery Goetel motto: "What the industry broke this Man must repair". This means that after the industrial use of the land must bring it to its original state. This must generate extremely high costs that the mining industry has to take into account in its economic calculations. Therefore, the answer to the question about the chances of Polish coal, must take into account the fact that the cost of reclamation and revitalization of post-mining areas significantly undermine its competitiveness in the global market. Especially dangerous are the producers not applying ecological principles. This is one of the reasons why the highly eco-friendly Europe resigns from his own mining and prefer to buy raw materials from other. The article presents the economic and financial situation of Polish coal and the possible directions of development its surface gasification.