Why are we playing King Canute when coal should be king?

THE debate concerning power generation that I, and several other Yorkshire Post readers have been engaged in, has at last ignited – politicians have realised that votes will be at stake.

A glimpse at the world scene is illuminating: coal-fired power is due to increase worldwide by around 25 per cent by 2020.

China has an installed capacity of around 760 GW of coal-fired plants (about 40 times that of Drax, our largest plant). It has over 300 plants under construction. India has a programme to almost treble its coal-fired power from 95GW over the next 10 years. Germany is expected to build 12 new plants by 2020 and at present produces over 50 per cent of its power from coal.

The UK has strangled any new plant construction by making CSS (carbon capture and storage, yet untried commercially) mandatory, together with UK carbon taxes, in addition to the EU Green Directive

The result of the fracking revolution in the USA has meant that, for the first time, for them gas is cheaper for power production than coal, hence depressing coal prices. As a consequence, a glut has arisen, and inexpensive coal from Canada and USA is for the first time readily available to European markets in volume.

This unprecedented opportunity to enjoy reasonably priced power is being denied the British consumer as our coal- fired plant is being run down, effectively by government dictat, over the next ten years.

Jim Ratcliffe, the director of the Grangemouth petrochemical complex, recently pointed out that our energy costs are already uncompetitive and yet we are scheduled to close down our cheapest sources of power.

All the new investment is going into wind and solar power, which are from two to three times more expensive and intermittent, and nuclear – 10 years off and twice as expensive.

As a business proposition, coal power is a no-brainer. We face a world where most of the world, including our major EU neighbours, will increasingly take advantage of our uncompetitive power costs, causing us to increase the world CO2 pollution by importing more goods from far greater polluters.

Nobody would suggest that 
coal should be our only power source but playing King Canute over the matter is not a credible option if we are to compete as a nation.

We must continue to persuade the world to become greener in a sensible way by signing up to multilateral enforceable agreements and reducing our pollution in tandem with them. At present what we are signed up to increasingly has the look of a suicide pact.

From: Coun Nader Fekri, (Labour & Co-op, Calder Ward), Cheetham Street, Hebden Bridge.

I MUST thank the Government for their eminently sensible advice re keeping warm this winter, by suggesting we all wear extra jumpers to keep energy bills down.

May I suggest we all clamber up on top of a bookcase, cupboard, or wardrobe? As we all know, warm air rises, and so the temperature will increase the higher you climb.