First UK Coal Mine for Decades – Is it a Good Idea?

With COP27 only just ending it does seem a strange time for the first UK Coal Mine for 30 years to be approved, but if I was being cynical, also understandable now our presidency is well and truly over and this year’s event now part of history.

Now having looked into the issue I can see both sides of the argument.

The coal is not to be used for making electricity but for the manufacture of steel and has historically been used for this process.

Currently the UK is dependent upon others to provide the coke needed for the steel production in the UK, so at the demands of other countries and with Putin being silly being dependent on Russia or any other country is unwise, so having our own source is sensible if this is the best way to manufacture steel.

The question is I guess, is this the best way to produce steel?

Well, it is probably the cheapest, but there are other processes, so does approving this mine fly in the face of the UK’s position as a leader of climate change.

There are other processes and realistically if the desire is to eliminate the use of fossil fuels appears to be a retrograde step., which not for the first time has been undertaken by politicians.

So while stating our credentials as a climate change leader we chose to do things for political and financial aims.

The human race is a lost cause if the UK can’t do the right thing, because other coal users will certainly not be champing at the bit to reduce their use.