2012 Dirty Coal Infotour - Newcastle

Published: January 29, 2012 11:16 by newcastle

Its at 4pm at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Stepney Bank, Newcastle, on sunday 4 march. More info is here:
http://www.starandshadow.org.uk/on/event/716

directions to venue http://www.starandshadow.org.uk/the-venue

Published: February 02, 2012 12:59 by Critic

There are essential campaigns against open cast planning applications which are led by the local community associations of pit villages. Halton Lea Gate prevented UK Coal from mining next to their children's playground. There is a little history of joint action between the NUM & EF! on this issue. Such solidarity might be best built using less argumentative language than that used by the event organizers.
Arthur Scargil stated: "ENVIRONMENTALISTS AND ECO-WARRIORS... HAVE BEEN CONSPICUOUS BY THEIR ABSENCE IN THE CAMPAIGN TO STOP OPEN-CAST COALMINING". But at the time that he made that statement there was an ongoing occupation of an open cast site in Nottingham.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/412292.html?c=on#c206816

Published: February 03, 2012 12:10 by Citric

"Such solidarity might be best built using less argumentative language than that used by the event organizers."

I can't see any argumentative lingo in the posting above. Please explain what you're on about darling x

Published: February 05, 2012 18:17 by Critic

Thank you for the reply.
The term "Dirty coal" will offend supporters of coal mining; it could even be mis-interpreted as the middle class looking down on coal miners. It is I know an accurate description of the fossil fuel. I am opposed to burning coal in power stations but I support it's use in the production of steel for environmentally appropriate projects. There will be others who will see the title of the meeting and will wrongly write it off as anti working class.
There are people who self identify as class struggle anarchists who support "Clean Coal" by which they mean "Carbon Capture". Power station companies do not claim that this technology reduces greenhouse emissions per unit energy generated; they claim reduced emissions to the atmosphere per unit emissions created which is a metric that isn't indicative of environmental appropriateness or anything else.
These are difficult issues to sum up but solidarity would have been built through an "Open Cast Info Tour".

Published: February 08, 2012 22:06 by Critic

Dave Douglas response to this was:

While the NUM is against the expansion of open cast, and believes deep mines, shallow drifts, small mines etc are a preferable option to them, we cannot agree with a blanket description of coal as 'dirty' per sae. It is as dirty as the government chooses or not chooses it to be. Last month the major clean coal plant at Longannet in Scotland, which was years ahead of its research and development, had the plug pulled on it by the government. So instead of taking a clean coal option, they have allowed it to collapse and in turn burn the coal in the most environmentally damaging way. The last plant programme in the whole of the British Isles is at my former pit Hatfield Main, this is a programme for the cleanest most efficient CCS plant in the world. It seeks to remove 90% of all CO2 and virtually all and any other pollutants. Despite £180 Million from europe, despite offers of match funding from potential developers of the scheme despite keen interest from China and India, the whole thing rests on a shoestring decision which will be made in Feb of this year by the government.
If they walk away from this scheme there will be no clean coal programme for Britain and probably for europe. The impact this ps would have on world consumption patterns of coal cannot be overestimated. Over a period of two decades CO2 emissions from coal power stations world wide would be drastically and dramatically cut back. US experimental schemes are less than half as efficient as this one. One would have thought, you would have thrown your weight behind demanding the scheme be funded. Let me remind you that the collapse of the CCS/Clean Coal Power Station development plan will not mean the collapse of coal fired stations, that is why they made coal stations 'carbon capture ready' they can and will operate without the clean coal technology in the main. Not the Hatfield one because its exclusively a hydrogenisation plant which takes the CO2 out before combustion.
Coal production round the world is rising ( its not rising here by the way, and coal companies have shown a total lack of interest in investing in deep traditional mining ) the proportion of open cast mining to deep mining in Britain is now 50-50 it used to be confined to small seams near the surface (and most of the local applications are for those) but open cast now also dig deep underground into rich seams which traditionally would be mined by shafts or drifts with all the extraction underground, as against ripped open and raw as in open cast. But although open cast is not our choice you do not differentiate and throw all mining into the guise of the devils work. The films you tend to show are of the worse form of mining yet devised in the shape of US Strip Mining which destroys the whole mountain and surrounding environment. You give the impression this is what mining per sae is, it isnt. We don't strip mine in Britain or anywhere in Europe. Strip mining is opposed by the UMA the american miners union, it is our communities who bare the brunt of this form of environmental destruction as well as throwing hundreds of thousands of deep miners out of work. Miners hate strip mining, but you hate all coal mining and see it as all the same.

Coal is not a black and white issue, rather deep mines and drifts and small mines to open cast, but open cast will be welcome where there is no other work for miners and mining communities to do. Clean coal technology must be developed if coal is to be burned and it will be, or else it will be just be burned without CCS and clean burn systems. You need to tune your opposition to be more selective and targeted otherwise you just attack coal and coal miners and coal communities regardless. We will never accept that the scrap heap is where we and our communinites and are mining skills belong, coal is a class issue, pit closures were a class issue, clean coal technology is a class issue, where people like yourselves stand and how you act on this will also demonstrate to what extent you are part of this problem or the solution in my humble opinion.

I have a small pamphlet now out on this issue, Clean Coal , Climate Change, the greens , the miners and the bliddy windmills.
It will cost you £3 post paid. I think you owe it to yourselves to read an alternative perspective on this issue.

Quote ends.

Dave states that one project "Seeks to remove 90% of all CO2". As I said, they do not claim any reduction in emissions per unit power generated; the proportion of C02 is not a metric of environmental impact. Dave's preferred scheme is:
http://www.2coenergy.com/

Dave is wrong to say "Open cast will be welcome where there is no other work for miners". That has not been the case in the North East, as these pit village community web sites explain:
http://www.whittonstallactiongroup.co.uk
http://pontvalley.net