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Poland Fuels and Energy
Poland's fuel and energy profile is dominated by coal,
the
only fuel in abundant domestic supply. Because of lopsided
and
uneconomical dependence on this single fuel, the fuels and
energy
sector of the economy was a primary target for
reorganization and
streamlining in the early 1990s. In 1989 production of
coke and
extraction and refining of gas and oil accounted for 4.9
percent
of Poland's total industrial base. Electrical power
generation
accounted for 2.9 percent. However, these statistics were
downward biased by the very low, heavily subsidized prices
of the
products of those industries. Higher, market-established
prices
of fuels and electricity were expected to induce more
economical
fuel consumption, as were modern fuel-saving technologies
in
industry, construction, and transportation and gradual
elimination of the most heavily fuel-intensive industries.
By
1991 official policy had recognized that making such
changes was
less expensive than continuing the cycle of higher energy
demand
and production characteristic of the centrally planned
economy.
Data as of October 1992
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