The Polish Sejm lower house of parliament backed further consideration of the MPs' bill in a 239-to-17 vote, with 17 abstentions, on Wednesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The plan extends the current freeze on the prices of electricity, gas and heat for households and public-sector entities until June 30, 2024.
It was put forward by Donald Tusk's liberal Civic Coalition (KO) group and the centre-right Third Way alliance, which are set to take power in Poland, in a government coalition with the Left, after an election in October.
Meanwhile, lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a bill submitted by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's conservative government, which foresaw an extension of the energy price cap for all of next year, the PAP news agency reported.
Earlier, the Civic Coalition and the Third Way revised their bill to freeze energy prices, removing a controversial provision to allow wind farms to be built at a minimum distance of 300 metres from housing.
Third Way MP Paulina Henning-Kloska told the Sejm that the relaxation of wind farm rules had been withdrawn from the bill as it could give President Andrzej Duda, an ally of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, "a pretext to veto" the legislation, the PAP news agency reported.
The Civic Coalition last week laid out the details of a plan to make renewable power the main source of electricity in Poland by 2030 to replace coal, the Reuters news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Reuters
