Garzweiler surface mine
The Tagebau Garzweiler is a surface mine () in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is operated by RWE and used for mining lignite. The mine currently has a size of 48 km² and got its name from the village of which previously existed at this location. The community was moved to a section of Jüchen with the same name. The open-pit mine. The mine is located west of Grevenbroich and exploitation is progressing towards Erkelenz. Mining was originally limited to the 66.0 km² area "Garzweiler I" located east of motorway A 44. Mining in  the 48.0 km² "Garzweiler II" sector started in 2006 and it will take until around 2045 to fully exploit both sectors. The lignite is used for power generation at nearby power plants such as Neurath and Niederaußem. It is not yet known what effect the plan to phase out all coal-fired power plants in Germany by 2038 will have on the Garzweiler lignite mine system. Traffic. Motorways A 44 and A 61 crossing the planned mine area are also affected. The A 44 was closed in 2005, dismantled in 2006 and traffic rerouted to the widened A 61 and  A 46 motorways. In 2017, as the mine expanded to the west, the A 61 was closed with traffic diverted onto a stretch of newly built A 44 to the east of its original route. Displacement of people. In the early 80's it is estimated that more than 30.000 people had to be moved for the Garzweiler mine. These people had to leave their houses and move to somewhere else. Garzweiler II required that 12 more towns had to be removed, where around 12.000 more people had to be moved. This has caused many controversies where people protested to  save their homes. There are many different opinions on whether this displacement of the local inhabitants is a good case. According to Wolfgang Rupieper, head of Pro Lausitzer Braunkohle, which is a pro-coal lobbying association based in another brown coal mining area in Germany, the resettlement is not a bad thing. He states: "Coal is the motor of the region, and when it collapses there won't be anything left, I know it's not pretty, but people who don't have a future here because there are no jobs will lose their homes too. They'll have to  go elsewhere."