Oil is running out, Russia controls most of Europe’s gas, our weary nuclear generators are on their last legs. So what will power Britain in the future? James Delinpole reports on the unlikely comeback of coal.

Some nice photos of Daw Colliery near Coventry and some titbits of information:

“Of the 1,000 coal mines that existed when the industry was nationalised in 1947, only a handful remain open. The are just six large-scale deep pits in Britain (all in Nottinghamshire, South Yorkshire or Warwickshire; none in the tradition mining heartland of the Welsh Valleys), a dozen or so small-scale privately run operations and 24 open-cast mines – and 24 open-cast or `surface mines´ as they are known because it carries less of an eco-unfriendly stigma.”

Delinpole, J 2009 The New King Coal. The Mail on Sunday March 22, 2009 Live Supplement pp 18-2, 6 colour photos.

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:curse:
There is NO way coal can make a come back for probably 20 years.
The tree hugging youghurt weavers and the politicians cashing in on global warming will p**s on any ideas.
However when the great unwashed chav generation can't watch Big Bruver then the politicians of any party will do anything to get votes!
By then we will be re-inventing coal mining. All skills will be gone and the demands on the industry will repeat conditions of the 19th cent. :smartass:

:curse:
The tree hugging youghurt weavers and the politicians cashing in on global warming will p**s on any ideas.

Totally OT for this discussion... One of my businesses hires out helium filled advertising blimps. Yesterday I had a call from an ad agency (it would have to be... bear with me) who wanted a blimp for a 2 day campaign.

Their client wanted an eco-blimp. Whatever one of those is. They wanted it, perhaps, made from recycled materials, or to, perhaps, be biodegradeable. But it was only to be used once and that for only two days.

I guess I should have talked up the eco-credentials of our blimps (once I'd thought of some), but I was amazed at the sort of enviro-twaddle that concludes that manufacturing something for two days is more environmentally conscious than hiring an environmentally unfriendly standard blimp that already exists and will last for years.

The sort of logic that tries to convince me to throw my car away so another one can be manufactured in its place and weighed down with batteries full of noxious chemicals.

I should have sold them a guaranteed water soluble one ;)

:curse:

Rant over :flowers:

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Read the said article last night - good to see some pro coal reporting for a change. Twas a little ironic though from a paper that was so pro Twatcher, I thought.

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