Amid an energy crisis, Germany turns to the world's dirtiest fossil fuel

The chimney of the Evonik coal plant in Marl, Germany, on Sept. 13. This coal-fired power plant helps power a chemical park run by Evonik. The park employs more than 10,000 people and the plant, which was scheduled to shut down this year, will be open for at least another year to replace natural gas that has been cut by Russia. (Rob Schmitz/NPR)

DORTMUND, Germany — Power Plant Manager Bernard Vendt stands on a platform jutting out from a smokestack, 20 stories above his company's chemical park. Past the park's menagerie of twisting pipes, scaffolding and chimneys below him is a waterway that connects these factories to their energy source.

"Over there, that's our harbor," Vendt says, pointing with one hand while the other keeps his hard hat steady in the gusting wind. "You see the yellow crane moving there? That's where the coal has landed by ship."