Yildiz pledges green energy policies

Turkey will never resort to a policy that would harm the ecological balance or the environment, said Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz on Saturday. "As we hope to see an increase in investment, we will never favor a set of working conditions that would harm the environment," he said when asked a possible thermal power plant in the Black Sea tourist town of Amasra, where Yildiz and Labor and Social Security Minister Omer Dincer were visiting a coal and methane gas exploration site. "Our work will not harm the environment or the ecology here," Yildiz added. New hydroelectric power plants and nuclear power plants have drawn criticism from environmentalists, but Yildiz has stressed that projects in the pipeline include respect for the environment as a principal condition. The hydroelectric and nuclear power projects are meant to help Turkey reach its 2023 goal of an end to dependence on foreign energy supplies. Turkey's imports of crude oil and natural gas are the primary cause of its foreign trade deficit, which last year exceeded some $60 billion.