Polish president vetoes bill easing rules about building wind farms

WARSAW (Reuters) -Polish President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a bill meant to ease rules for building onshore wind farms on Thursday, saying that a government decision to bundle it together with a freeze on energy prices amounted to "blackmail".

The accusation is the latest salvo in a battle with the centrist government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, an arch rival of the president's allies in the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The bill would have cut the distance required between planned installations and residential locations, while keeping permitting more restrictive for projects close to protected natural areas. It included incentives for municipalities and homeowners in areas located close to new wind farms.

It also included a clause that would have frozen energy prices for households until the end of the year.

Nawrocki, who opposes easing the wind farm regulations but is in favour of an energy price freeze, objected to the two elements being combined in one bill.

"There is one bill that I have ... unequivocally decided to veto," Nawrocki told a news conference.

"The wind farm bill ... is a form of blackmail by the parliamentary majority and the government, not only against the President of the Republic of Poland, but also against society," he said.

Nawrocki said he would propose a new bill that would copy the price freeze section of the vetoed legislation while dropping the wind farm elements.

Energy Minister Milosz Motyka responded to the veto, writing on X that Poland needed to unlock "the potential offered by cheap energy sources."

"President Nawrocki's veto of the law guaranteeing low energy prices is a blow to Polish families, industry, energy security, and the entire economy," he wrote.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Anna Koper, and Karol Badohal; Editing by Joe Bavier)