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Ken Capstick: We can't afford to ignore our coal resources
AS world leaders gather in Copenhagen for the climate change summit, the UK delegation should remember this: Britain is facing an energy crisis of untold proportions.
Alistair Buchanan, Ofgem's chief executive has warned that consumers
face energy cost rises of at least 14 per cent by 2016 with price spikes as high as 60 per cent.
Speaking on the BBC news recently, he declined to rule out energy blackouts that could see the lights go out and against this background we witness further protests at Radcliffe-on-Soar power station in Nottinghamshire.
Britain's energy security is in serious danger as a result of the policies followed first by the Tories and then by New Labour.
In recent years, the Government has conducted two energy reviews and still the crisis escalates and appears to be finally coming to a head in the year that has seen the 25th anniversary of the miners' strike that resulted in the decimation of our deep-mine coal industry.
It was, or should have been, obvious to energy policy makers that by 2020 our gas reserves would be at the fag-end and our oil reserves gone.
Yet nothing has been done to reduce our over-reliance on foreign
imports of gas, oil and coal.
We are now a net importer of energy. We import more gas than we produce and in 2008 we imported 44 million tonnes of coal at a cost 2bn, half of which came from Russia. Gas and coal represent 82 per cent of our energy requirements and for those who think coal is a fuel of the past we burn 60 million tonnes of coal a year but produce only 16 million tonnes ourselves, half from opencast and half from deep-mine production.
According to the Coal Authority, both the National Coal Board, in the late '70s, and later in 1990, British Coal, assessed Britain's
recoverable coal resources at 45 billion tonnes – 300 years worth at present consumption rates. In that time, we have only mined just over one billion tonnes.
Our operating reserves at existing mines in 1990 amounted to four billion tonnes, with a further two billion identified at what were then described as new mines. In other words, a possible 100 years of
reserves at present consumption rates.
The abandonment of these precious coal reserves have left us at the
mercy of unstable foreign importers of coal and gas. The spurious arguments used against exploiting our coal reserves are based on environmental concerns surrounding CO2 emissions.
Certain environmentalist lobbies, supported by other vested interests, have managed to convince many people that coal is a dangerous fuel that will damage the planet – evidenced by the campaigns waged against the power stations at Kingsnorth in Kent, Drax in Yorkshire and now Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire.
If all our coal-fired power stations were closed, it would not effect the billions of tonnes of CO2 being pumped into the atmosphere by China and America alone.
Clean coal technology is an absolute must and here's why. In 2004, China emitted 4,707 million tonnes of carbon dioxide while America emitted 5,293 million tonnes. These amounts are projected to reach 11,239 and 7,950 million tonnes respectively by 2030 according to the International Energy Agency.
The only solution is to develop clean coal technology to tackle what is a worldwide problem and, since developing nations like China and India will burn their coal reserves and America will seek to reduce its over-reliance on imported oil by burning its coal, those who argue for the development of clean coal technology are the true environmentalists trying to save the planet for future generations.
A new up-to-date in-depth assessment of Britain's mineable coal
reserves is urgently needed with the aim of using our coal as a major strategic energy resource.
Such a strategy cannot be left to the short-term thinking of the market with its limited ability to provide the necessary investment.
We have allowed the crisis to develop over many years and the Government has a duty to ensure Britain's energy security at a price
that the poorest in our society can afford.
Ken Capstick is a former vice-president of the Yorkshire NUM
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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