Cumbrian Coal Mine - What future for young Cumbrians?
The decision by Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, to authorise the first new coal mine in the UK for 30 years continues to generate controversy.
The Chair of the UK government’s own Net Zero Review, Chris Skidmore MP has called the decision “a mistake” and said that it would be inconsistent with the findings of his review. Two separate legal challenges have been launched, by South Lakes Action on Climate Change and Friends of the Earth. Extinction Rebellion painted the entrance to Mr Gove’s office in Marsham Street black, and at one point several of its members were glued to it.
Even the head of the UK’s national centre for steel research, Chris McDonald, said there is no real demand from the steel industry for the “coking coal” that the mine will produce. A recent example of this was the announcement by Chinese-owned British Steel that they are shutting their coking ovens in Scunthorpe, meaning the argument that mining the coal in the UK would reduce the emissions involved with importing it from overseas is on shaky ground, as less and less UK-based manufacturers would even use the coal the mine would produce.
The Chair of the government’s independent Committee on Climate Change, Lord Deben, has described the decision as “absolutely indefensible”, pointing out that 85% of the coal produced for steelmaking would be exported: he said that it would “create another example of the UK saying one thing and doing another”. You can see what he means, by looking back at the UK’s statements as Co-Chair of the Powering Past Coal Alliance (motto “The end of coal is in sight”), and the exhortations on its behalf on no less a figure than Kwasi Kwarteng, then Business Secretary –
“The PPCA co-chairs, Canada and the UK, set out three critical priorities for the PPCA in the lead up to COP 26 in 2021, emphasizing the opportunity to press for greater global ambition on coal phase-out under the United Kingdom’s COP 26 presidency. They challenge PPCA members to stand with them and take concrete action to advance these priorities.”
At the COP26 climate talks, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that the conference marked “the death knell for coal”, and he made that one of four key themes for COP26. Saying one thing and doing another: a hallmark of recent UK governments.
A visit to a working mine
I visited a working coal mine, just once. At the coal face an enormous trepanning or slicing machine was grinding along the face, taking off a slice of coal at a time and tipping it onto a conveyor belt. In front of the huge slicing machine and the coal face was a whole line of mobile pit props, like small fork lift trucks, which moved forward in sequence as the coal slicer passed them. To reach the other service tunnel, you had to climb over the front of these mobile pit props, as they moved forward. This was not easy. The hollowed out rock chamber behind the pit props was allowed to collapse under its own weight. I was still finding coal dust in my nose and ears three days later.