Black is the new Green

The article below was published on the Telegraph Online web site.

In view of the fact that there are known to be reserves of coal underground which have been estimated to be equivalent to at least a three hundred year supply, at the current rate of consumption, and bearing in mind both the country's growing dependence on imported energy, as well as the rising demand for coal from a rapidly industrializing China: it makes perfect economic sense to rehabilitate King Coal and to restore him to his throne.

The so-called Green lobby will at this point throw up their hands in mock horror. Prime minister David Cameron has said that coal only has a future if it is "clean". But that is as much as to say that it has no future. Coal is, by its nature, dirty. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology has yet to be perfected and is, in any case, both prohibitively expensive and unnecessary. Coal-fired power stations will emit carbon dioxide. However, as convincingly demonstrated in a recent post to this blog (see "Catastrophic man-made global warming theory refuted") CO2 accounts for only a fraction of global warming - less than five per cent - most of which is caused by tropospheric moisture, and is not man-made.

Sixty years ago a million Britons were employed winning coal from a thousand mines. Yet today we import coal from abroad while sitting on some of the largest and best quality reserves of coal in the world, and pay millions to languish in unemployment, while every day more cheap labour arrives from the Third World. The economics of the madhouse, or rather of global 'free trade' capitalism.

Economic nationalism demands that government intervene in the so-called free market in order to regulate, co-ordinate and influence it, in the national interest.

In short, the environmental impact of burning coal is negligible, and is in any case a price well worth paying in order to secure the economic and social benefits of a restored and flourishing coal mining industry. These would include not only a considerable reduction in the current dependence on nuclear energy production, with all of its attendant environmental and safety concerns, but also a sizeable contribution towards reducing Britain's balance of trade deficit with the rest of the world, as well as a sizeable contribution towards eliminating unemployment with all of its economic and social costs.

King Coal: Is Black Stuff Regaining Power?

Sunday, November 29, 2009

David Crabtree, Midlands correspondent

Twenty-five years after the miners' strike, coal could play an increasing role in Britain's energy needs, according to the UK's biggest mining group.

UK Coal says new technology, which can capture and store up to 90% of carbon emissions, is likely to increase demand.

The Government has said coal does have a future, as long as it is clean.

Within five years, it is hoped carbon capture technology will be up and running at a UK coal fired power station. No new ones will be built without it.

Last year, the all-time coal production record for a British mine was broken at the Daw Mill Colliery in Warwickshire, where it extracted 3.2 million tonnes.

UK Coal director Norman Haslam said: "A third of the electricity in the UK is generated using coal, so clearly in the short term we can't do without it and even in the longer term we can't do without it.

"Coal burning stations can vary their output fairly easily, whereas nuclear stations have got to give a steady output. So coal can be used to meet peak demand.

"If coal can be cleaned up, coal will be in stronger demand."

UK Coal currently operates four deep coal mines, four surface mines and has consent for a further three sites.

It claims to have reserves and resources of more than 100 million tonnes of coal lying just metres below the surface.

It hopes to increase production and cut down on the 32 million tonnes of coal which must be imported from abroad each year.

Coal miners are highly skilled and well paid. UK Coal receives around 100 applicants for every job.

Bob Blenkinsopp, branch secretary for the Union of Democratic Mineworkers, said: "We hope to see some expansion within the industry because there is a lot of potential.

"In the 40 years I have been involved with the industry, I have seen vast changes. It is unrecognisable compared to how it was.

"It is such a high-tech industry. Miners are almost technicians these days. It is just not the raw, crude occupation it used to be."

What is happening at Daw Mill shows Britain still has a flourishing, if greatly reduced, mining industry.