The Fuel Nightmare Continues

It’s as if the universe is trying to tell us something, isn’t it?

It’s as if the universe is trying to tell us something, isn’t it?

First, a disastrous month that saw at least 15 separate oil spills worldwide, nearly all of them in North America. That month also saw an oil barge catch fire after a collision, and the publication of a study implicating fracking as a cause of earthquakes.

Now at least 600 gallons have spilled from an Enbridge oil pumping station near Viking, Minnesota.Two fuel barges carrying a natural gas derivative have exploded and are still burning on the Alabama River. And new reports strongly suggest that tar sands from Exxon’s Pegasus Pipeline in Mayflower, Arkansas have seeped into Lake Conway and are heading toward the Arkansas River.

Disasters like these bring the real costs of fossil fuels into sharp focus, because we can imagine ourselves affected by them. But the truth is, disasters like these are part of everyday life for the people and other beings living in areas where fossil fuels are extracted—or any other industrial materials, from copper for solar panels to coltan for cell phones.

If you wouldn’t want oil spilling into your back yard, if you wouldn’t want a strip mine ripping open a hole behind your house and poisoning your water, then it’s time to admit that the economic system founded on consuming these materials has got to go. We’ll never have justice or sustainability if we base one group’s “high standard of living” on the dislocation and destruction of others.

 

The Efficiency of Green Energy

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We ought not at least to delay dispersing a set of plausible fallacies about the economy of fuel, and the discovery of substitutes [for coal], which at present obscure the cri

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We ought not at least to delay dispersing a set of plausible fallacies about the economy of fuel, and the discovery of substitutes [for coal], which at present obscure the critical nature of the question, and are eagerly passed about among those who like to believe that we have an indefinite period of prosperity before us. –William Stanley Jevons, The Coal Question (1865)

There are, at present, many myths about green energy and its efficiency to address the demands and needs of our burgeoning industrial society, the least of which is that a switch to “renewable” energy will significantly reduce our dependency on, and consumption of, fossil fuels.

The opposite is true. If we study the actual productive processes required for current “renewable” energies (solar, wind, biofuel, etc.) we see that fossil fuels and their infrastructure are not only crucial but are also wholly fundamental to their development. To continue to use the words “renewable” and “clean” to describe such energy processes does a great disservice for generating the type of informed and rational decision-making required at our current junction.

To take one example – the production of turbines and the allocation of land necessary for the development, processing, distribution and storage of “renewable” wind energy. From the mining of rare metals, to the production of the turbines, to the transportation of various parts (weighing thousands of tons) to a central location, all the way up to the continued maintenance of the structure after its completion – wind energy requires industrial infrastructure (i.e. fossil fuels) in every step of the process.

If the conception of wind energy only involves the pristine image of wind turbines spinning, ever so wonderfully, along a beautiful coast or grassland, it’s not too hard to understand why so many of us hold green energy so highly as an alternative to fossil fuels. Noticeably absent in this conception, though, are the images of everything it took to get to that endpoint (which aren’t beautiful images to see at all and is largely the reason why wind energy isn’t marketed that way).

Because of the rapid growth and expansion of industrialiation in the last two centuries, we are long past the days of easy accessible resources. If you take a look at the type of mining operations and drilling operations currently sustaining our way of life you will readily see degradation and devastation on unconscionable scales. This is our reality and these processes will not change no matter what our ends are – these processes are the degree with which “basic” extraction of all of the fundamental metals, minerals, and resources we are familiar with currently take place.

In much the same way that the absurdities of tar sands extraction, mountaintop removal, and hydraulic fracturing are plainly obvious, so too are the continued mining operations and refining processes of copper, silver, aluminum, zinc, etc. (all essential to the development of solar panels and wind turbines).

It is not enough – given our current situation and its dire implications – to just look at the pretty pictures and ignore everything else. All this does, as wonderfully reaffirming and uplifting as it may be, is keep us bound in delusions and false hopes. As Jevons affirms, the questions we have before us are of such overwhelming importance that it does no good to continue to delay dispersing plausible fallacies. If we wish to go anywhere from here, we absolutely need uncompromising (and often brutal) truth.

A common argument among proponents of supposed “green” energy – often prevalent among those who do understand the inherent destructive processes of fuels, mining and industry – is that by simply putting an end to capitalism and its profit motive, we will have the capacity to plan for the efficient and proper management of remaining fossil fuels.

However, the efficient use of a resource does not actually result in its decreased consumption, and we owe evidence of that to William Stanley Jevons’ work The Coal Question. Written in 1865 (during a time of such great progress that criticisms were unfathomable to most), Jevons devoted his study to questioning Britain’s heavy reliance on coal and how the implication of reaching its limits could threaten the empire. Many covered topics in this text have influenced the way in which many of us today discuss the issues of peak oil and sustainability – he wrote on the limits to growth, overshoot, energy return on energy input, taxation of resources and resource alternatives.

In the chapter, “Of the economy of fuel,” Jevons addresses the idea of efficiency directly. Prevalent at the time was the thought that the failing supply of coal would be met with new modes of using it, therefore leading to a stationary or diminished consumption. Making sure to distinguish between private consumption of coal (which accounted for less than one-third of total coal consumption) and the economy of coal in manufactures (the remaining two-thirds), he explained that we can see how new modes of economy lead to an increase of consumption according to parallel instances. He writes:

The economy of labor effected by the introduction of new machinery throws laborers out of employment for the moment. But such is the increased demand for the cheapened products, that eventually the sphere of employment is greatly widened. Often the very laborers whose labor is saved find their more efficient labor more demanded than before.

The same principle applies to the use of coal (and in our case, the use of fossil fuels more generally) – it is the very economy of their use that leads to their extensive consumption. This is known as the Jevons Paradox, and as it can be applied to coal and fossil fuels, it so rightfully can be (and should be) applied in our discussions of “green” and “renewable” energies – noting again that fossil fuels are never completely absent in the productive processes of these energy sources.

We can try to assert, given the general care we all wish to take in moving forward to avert catastrophic climate change, that much diligence will be taken for the efficient use of remaining resources but without the direct questioning of consumption our attempts are meaningless. Historically, in many varying industries and circumstances, efficiency does not solve the problem of consumption – it exasperates it. There is no guarantee that “green” energies will keep consumption levels stationary let alone result in a reduction of consumption (an obvious necessity if we are planning for a sustainable future).

Jevons continues, “Suppose our progress to be checked within half a century, yet by that time our consumption will probably be three or four times what it now is; there is nothing impossible or improbable in this; it is a moderate supposition, considering that our consumption has increased eight-fold in the last sixty years. But how shortened and darkened will the prospects of the country appear, with mines already deep, fuel dear, and yet a high rate of consumption to keep up if we are not to retrograde.”

Writing in 1865, Jevons could not have fathomed the level of growth that we have attained today but that doesn’t mean his early warnings of Britain’s use of coal should be wholly discarded. If anything, the continued rise and dominance of industrialisation over nearly all of the earth’s land and people makes his arguments ever more pertinent to our present situation.

Based on current emissions of carbon alone (not factoring in the reaching of tipping points and various feedback loops) and the best science readily available, our time frame for action to avert catastrophic climate change is anywhere between 15-28 years. However, as has been true with every scientific estimate up to this point, it is impossible to predict that rate at which these various processes will occur and largely our estimates fall extremely short. It is quite probable that we are likely to reach the point of irreversible runaway warming sooner rather than later.

Suppose our progress and industrial capitalism could be checked within the next ten years, yet by that time our consumption could double and the state of the climate could be exponentially more unfavorable than it is now – what would be the capacity for which we could meaningfully engage in any amount of industrial production? Would it even be in the realm of possibility to implement large-scale overhauls towards “green” energy? Without a meaningful and drastic decrease in consumption habits (remembering most of this occurs in industry and not personal lifestyles) and a subsequent decrease in dependency on industrial infrastructure, the prospects of our future are severely shortened and darkened.

 

Dodgy deals and corporate collusion: SNP still selling communities out to Scottish Coal

inc002Whilst a lot has happened in the past few days –

inc002Whilst a lot has happened in the past few days – secret meetings for MSPs, the liquidation of the UK’s largest opencast operator – a picture of the deal that Fergus Ewing and Russel Griggs are trying to strike to save the opencast industry is increasingly coming to light. Announcements of a new trust for restoration make clear our suspicions that there isn’t anywhere near enough money for restoration, or even the will to use any of it. Rumblings from the Scottish Government and mining companies such as Hargreves indicate that potentially profitable mines will be sold, whilst spent ones lie unrestored and forgotten. The question is: what deal will be struck that will allow other mining companies to operate these mines profitably? And more importantly in the grand scheme of things, what lengths will this SNP government go to save one of the most despised companies in the central belt?

 

We don’t need another trust – restoration bonds and more broken promises

Something funny has happened since Scottish Coal announced they’d gone belly up – a new Trust to restore opencast sites materialised seemingly out of nowhere. Ewing and Griggs must have been thinking on their feet, because there was no mention whatsoever of a new trust at the “private” briefing to MSPs on the future of the coal industry last Wednesday, 17th April. Surely that was the opportune moment to announce the new plans? Obviously, the briefing was a charade. But what else were they keeping from MSPs and therefore the rest of us?

Questions need answering about this new trust: Where will the money come from? Which sites will be restored and when will restoration start? Will communities have any control over it? But the biggest of all: what about the bonds that were in place for each site? Opencasts gain planning permission on the condition that (and this is bound by a legal agreement) sites will be fully restored afterwards. Surely therefore there’s insurance money waiting to be accessed. Bonds can be called in either by the local authority, or by the developer in the instance that they go bust. Surely now is exactly the time that they should be called in, and if they’re not, then was it all a hoax in the first place?

The announcement of a new trust reveals other truths too. The insurance companies responsible for the bonds apparently consider them high-risk now that the mining companies have gone under, and won’t issue any more bonds. Therefore, for mining operations to resume in the future, a new system for restoration needs to be created. This new trust isn’t some benevolent act to help the environment or give communities what they want, it’s about covering the backs of the mining companies in the future, and just another dirty trick.

Fergus Ewing had this to say: “We have been working closely with the key stakeholders over the past six months to address the issues facing the coal industry in Scotland and we share the concerns raised by local communities around the responsible restoration of open cast coal sites.” We’d like to know who these key stakeholders are, and why communities living next to sites and ultimately bearing all the negative impacts of them aren’t considered “key stakeholders”.

He also said: “I am, therefore, pleased to announce that we are setting up a new trust to help facilitate the restoration of old open cast coal mines across Scotland.” Yes, but what about the bonds, and the fact that they were a condition of approval for every single mine application?

He then said: “…the restoration process itself is expected, over time, to create hundreds of jobs across the country – as well as restoring the local environment.” Well we wonder where he got that idea from.

Last minute extensions

Scottish Coal bosses were up to their usual tricks right up until the last minute. At two sites in particular, Mainshill in South Lanarkshire and St Ninnians in Fife, Scottish Coal applied for wee extensions by extending excavation areas slightly and into bits not mentioned in original applications. The tonnage in both cases was 70,000. Mainshill was all but exhausted of its reserve, and St Ninnians was finished apart from the consented extension. These tiny extensions aren’t worth another mining company buying the site, but are worth at least a year in terms of restoration commitments. With these extensions the sites aren’t finished any more, so there’s no requirement to begin restoration until the extensions are worked. Smooth. Looking at the state that Mainshill and St Ninnians are currently in one wonders whether they’ll ever get restored.

Worse still, the local authorities must have known that Scottish Coal wouldn’t survive, as they’d supposedly been involved in the negotiations for months now. What local authority would accept an application that they knew would deliberately delay restoration obligations? Ah wait – local authorities that have been colluding with Scottish Coal since day one would do that.

The future for opencast sites

And then there’s the really massive holes in the ground, such as at Broken Cross, in South Lanarkshire. Whilst it might be worthwhile for another company to buy the site – there’s at least 2 million tonnes of coal left and most of the earth moving has been done – there’s no way that the pits at Broken Cross will get filled in with trust money or bond money, if it even exists that is. What do we think will happen to Broken Cross? Landfill site – the taxes will generate income to eventually restore once the hole has been filled in with rubbish, and South Lanarkshire has a solution to its waste problems. This could very well be the fate of most opencast sites, and a final injustice imposed on near-by communities.

Who is this Griggs character anyway?

Chair of the “Regulatory Review Group”, and chair of the new Restoration Trust apparently. He’s the go-to guy for deregulating industry. He’s also refused to meet with community members (so much for “representing each community”). Griggs said: “I am grateful for the support and constructive engagement I have had from local councils, landowners and the coal operators over the last few months in developing the new Trust. I look forward to working with them to launch the Trust and be ready to help with a fresh approach to restoring old mines.” Here he admits that they’ve been cooking up these new plans for months, but still not engaged with communities, and didn’t think it appropriate to mention this at his briefing to MSPs.

The scandal here is that a “fresh approach” and “new trust” is needed to restore old mines. How long have they known that existing measures wouldn’t be sufficient? Did they not think it important to mention to communities that, “by the way, you know the promises of restoration? Well, they’re not going to happen”. This means that either the bonds were never real or sufficient in the first place, or that local authorities have been failing in their obligations to monitor restoration progress. More likely though, it means both, and that we’ve been duped by the mining companies, local authorities and government for some time.

Put your money where your mouth is: call in the bonds

Maybe this is just flogging a dead horse now, but surely, surely some effort should be made to call in these restoration bonds. No one has even mentioned it! There must be at least a few of them that could make some money available? In theory there’s millions in them. Surely then, the equitable thing to do is to keep as many of the opencast workers on as possible to see the restoration of the sites, or at least as much as the finance will allow. The fact that no moves are being made to see to it that this is what happens just shows that there’s a bigger and worse announcement still to come, about a deal being struck between the Scottish Government, local authorities and whichever mining companies have their eyes on Scotland’s opencast sites.

 

For whom the bell tolls: Scottish Coal go into Liquidation

“In light of Scottish Coal’s poor trading and financial position, we have had to cease trading with immediate effect,”
-Blair Nimmo, joint provisional liquidator and head of restructuring at KPMG in Scotland.

“In light of Scottish Coal’s poor trading and financial position, we have had to cease trading with immediate effect,”
-Blair Nimmo, joint provisional liquidator and head of restructuring at KPMG in Scotland.

Scottish Coal, the UK’s biggest coal producer, has announced today that they are entering administration. Due to recent “significant cash flow pressures” they have laid-off 600 workers and stopped all production at their six open cast sites.

New open cast sites are unlikely to happen, and this is something to be happy about. However, 600 people have lost their jobs, and they won’t be the moneymen at the top, but the workers with little safety net. They have also had their last week of wages stolen, as this won’t be paid. For those living next to existing or unrestored sites this means scars on the landscape that are unlikely to be fixed any time soon. It’s time to get angry, and take back the land and wages that Scottish Coal bosses have stolen.

Sabotage at Powharnal OCCS

08/04/2013

At some point over the past weekend multiple items of plant machinery at an extension to the Powharnal open cast coal site in East Ayrshire were put beyond working use. High value targets including a prime mover and bulldozer were also targeted to cause maximum disruption to workings at the mine.

08/04/2013

At some point over the past weekend multiple items of plant machinery at an extension to the Powharnal open cast coal site in East Ayrshire were put beyond working use. High value targets including a prime mover and bulldozer were also targeted to cause maximum disruption to workings at the mine.

Scottish Coal is falling and not only do we intend to make sure that they go down – but that they stay down too.

 

Open letter on the future of the Faslane peace camp

April 6, 2013

CORRECTION: The open meeting on the future of the peace camp will now be held at 4pm in the Kinning Park Complex on Saturday 13th April.

April 6, 2013

CORRECTION: The open meeting on the future of the peace camp will now be held at 4pm in the Kinning Park Complex on Saturday 13th April.
For the last two years, there has been a small group of us rebuilding Faslane Peace Camp as a community of anti-nuclear action. We came together with a shared vision that if we maintain the camp as a safe and alcohol and drug free space with regular actions and campaigning, we could create a strong, autonomous community active in the fight against Trident and the militarisation of the West coast of Scotland.

Part of our vision has been achieved in making the camp a safe and welcoming space with facilities to support anti-nuclear action, low impact living and skill sharing. We have worked to sustain resistance to nuclear weapons as central to this space and our collective reason for being here through our own direct action campaigns and active involvement in wider Scottish anti-nuclear and anti-military movements. However, our main hope that we would grow, in terms of strength through numbers, has not been achieved. Maintaining this space whilst having an active campaign with so few of us has put us under such pressure, personally and as a collective, that we can’t continue.

This letter is our issuing a notice of this, identifying potential outcomes for the camp, our own limits in achieving these and, hopefully initiating an inclusive discussion on the future of Faslane Peace Camp that does not see the four current residents assuming this responsibility.

Our proposal:
We feel, as a group, our limit on being here is 12th June 2013, the 31st anniversary of the Camp. If the responsibility on deciding and enacting the future of the camp is to be ours,(i.e. if this notice does not provoke wider constructive discussion on the future of the camp or encourage a new wave of residents) then we will enact the following proposal:
we will start taking the camp down on 12th May to create a garden space (to be finished by 12th June) that will both celebrate the 31years of resistance here and act as a site facility to support future action camps.

We feel that leaving the camp empty and open to chance is not an option because we have seen it having “fallen into the wrong hands” and feel that this is much more detrimental to the peace movement and activism in general than the camp not being here.

The camp’s potential, capacity and support and the potential for continuing:
We feel that the camp’s capacity to support a self-sufficient community of resistance should not go understated. Despite ups and downs, for the last thirty years the camp has been an active challenge to the stationing of nuclear weapons on the Clyde. Many of the people who have passed through here have learned and continued to practise so many skills in active resistance and low impact living. Those of us here have grown and learned so much, from a personal level to an understanding of the nature of the state sponsored terrorism of nuclear weapons and the banality of the everyday running of this evil. This is a space to learn, grow and challenge a very fundamental human willingness to tolerate societal corruption (in this case, that of nuclear weapons) as well as maintaining a degree of living “outside the system” whilst we make attempts to challenge it.

The facilities here are indicative of the ingenuity of thirty years of creative and resourceful individuals who have simply found ways to create alternative ways of organising that challenge so many of the negative learned behaviour in society.

Ideally, we would love to see this continue, not least because so many have worked so hard to continue it but also because the symbolism of dismantling the camp at this potentially crucial time in the struggle for nuclear disarmament (in the context of the ongoing Scottish independence and Trident replacement debates) would be the worst possible timing.

We believe that maintaining supportive community living here, as well as active campaigning, can only be sustainably achieved with a significant increase in numbers, possibly eight residents. The potential and capacity of the camp is also severely limited by the lack of wider input and practical support for it’s inhabitants. We have felt like caretakers of a souvenir. We have felt a strong and increasing sense of moral support for what we are doing but with this has come inadequate and dwindling practical support.

In short, we feel that the camp can only have a future if a larger group of people decide they wish to be based here and the wider peace movement assumes a degree of collective responsibility to support these people, emotionally and practically and take active measures to ensure their welfare. The current residents would be committed to providing long term support to any group or individuals that wish to continue the Camp.

What happens next:
So many people have given so much of their lives and energy to the Peace Camp and anti-nuclear movement so we expect our proposal and thoughts contained here to have mixed responses. We have therefore decided to call an open meeting on Saturday 14th April at 4pm in the Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow as part of the Scrap Trident weekend and welcome any constructive input on this day or via email from this point onward (faslane30@gmail.com).

Whatever the decision on the future of the camp, we will continue with campaigning and an active presence at Faslane, but perhaps not in the form of continuous occupation. Nevertheless, we want to avoid the symbolism of taking the camp away at this crucial and hopeful time for disarmament and will actively support any viable alternative to this.

On 13-15th of April, there will be an unprecedented demonstration in Glasgow and mass blockade of Faslane with Scrap Trident and we expect this to be the beginning of a new wave of anti-nuclear and anti-militarist action. The future is disarmament!

http://faslanepeacecamp.wordpress.com/

World’s Longest Treesit Campaign, Update from Bilston Glen

Yesterday, people involved in the campaign to save Bilston Glen sent an update stating, “We have new information from the Midlothian Council and it would seem likely that the road is being redirected along a different route, one that does not go through Bilston Glen.

Yesterday, people involved in the campaign to save Bilston Glen sent an update stating, “We have new information from the Midlothian Council and it would seem likely that the road is being redirected along a different route, one that does not go through Bilston Glen. We have a map of the alternative route and it makes a lot more sense than any of the plans that we had seen before. We will not know until the spring what plan has been finalized for the road. They are also planning a lot of other development in the area so it is possible that the glen might still be under threat even if the proposed development is not the road.

We should have a lot more information in the spring. They are also considering building a new open cast coal mine somewhere near Rosewell, so depending on what is going on we may be joining in with that campaign as well. Keep in touch and we’ll let everyone know what is going on.”

The tree village is open for visiting and staying. Help is always needed in a variety of ways, from donating funds and supplies to attending Sunday Free Cafes in the glen and participating in the public outreach, education and demonstrations against the development in Midlothian Scotland.

Campaign History

Since June 2002 Bilston Glen, located near Penicuik, Scotland about eight miles from the city of Edinburgh,  has been occupied and fortified by an ever-expanding group of multinational environmental activists. The Bilston Glen Anti-Bypass Protest Site began when a proposal to build a road through the glen was put on the table by biotech giant Bayer. At the time, Bayer was building big dreams around commercial farming of genetically modified foods (GMOs) in the UK. While Bayer was dreaming, we were scheming. A strong anti-GMO movement in the UK attacked the biotech industry from every angle – slashing crop fields and test sights, protesting universities funding the research for further development, staging large public demonstrations outside grocery stores demanding the labeling of GMOs on consumer products, and last but not least – attacking the infrastructure of industrial development – the roads that would lead to commercial farm lands.

So far the activism exposing GMOs for the evils they are has worked in many parts of the world. To this day, commercial farming of GMOs is illegal in the UK, and by European law, food products containing more than .9% of a GM or GE ingredient must be labeled as containing GMOs. However, these victories did not get the proposal for the road off the Midlothian council agenda. After Bayer was no longer funding the road, a large “industrial estate” near to the glen where Ikea and other large “box” stores and packaging facilities reside took up the bid to fund the road. The new investors meet uproars from the community, who for many reasons feel that the road is needless and are opposed to industrial development through the ancient woodland. Bilston Glen is not only a designated “Sight of Scientific Special Interest” (SSSI) – a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the UK – it is also apart of the Green Belt. The Green Belt was designated as a cooridor for wildlife in the Midlothian area of Scotland, it’s purpose is to prevent development along the belt line. With blatent disregard to these already protected areas, the local council itself became the face of the road expansion.

Luckily, Earth warriors, forest squatters, world travelers, Earth First!ers and the like have done an amazing job at preventing road expansion through Bilston Glen for over 10 years! The tree-sit is the one of the longest standing peace and solidarity projects in the world, along side The Fasland Peace Camp, which is also located in Scotland. Intent on blocking any attempts to build a road through Bilston Glen, residents are also doing a alternative lifestyle project. Living and working together, organising ourselves and co-operatively helping each other.

The Clause 21 Growth and Infrastructure Bill Threat: More Info

 

THE LOOSE ANTI OPENCAST NETWORK

IF THE GOVERNMENT GETS ITS WAY, ARE WE LIKELY TO SEE MORE ‘MOTHBALLED’ OPENCAST SITES POCK-MARKING OUR COUNTRYSIDE?

 

THE LOOSE ANTI OPENCAST NETWORK

IF THE GOVERNMENT GETS ITS WAY, ARE WE LIKELY TO SEE MORE ‘MOTHBALLED’ OPENCAST SITES POCK-MARKING OUR COUNTRYSIDE?

LAON PR 2012- 16                                                               1/12/12

The hidden topic so far, in all the discussion about the Energy Bill is what will be its impact on the UK Coal Industry. This is a much shrunken industry, producing around 18m tonnes of coal a year. Last year 59% of that coal was produced by opencast methods. This year, as the deep mining sector continues to suffer from problems and cost pressures are closing mines (on a temporary basis) at Maltby and Aperpergwm and Daw Mill, our largest pit is almost certain to close, domestic coal production is becoming ever more reliant on surface mining – in the July to September quarter, of the 4m tonnes of coal the UK produced, 65% now came from surface mines.

But even the surface mine sector of the coal industry is not immune to the cold winds of economic realism coming from across the Atlantic, as US coal producers, desperate to find a market for their coal now that it can no longer compete with gas in the US domestic market because of the ‘fracking revolution’, send shiploads of coal to Europe at prices that make UK coal production uncompetitive. As a consequence, ATH Resources, a major surface mine operator has put itself up for sale and stopped development work on its new sites and Scottish Coal has asked its workforce to take a 10% pay cut and mothballed its large Blair House opencast site in Scotland indefinably. It’s just left it as large hole.

Furthermore, the Energy Bill, introduced into Parliament this week is intending to create a low carbon generating system which is design to squeeze out coal from being part of the fuel mix unless Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) prove itself to be commercially viable. The Bill will provide for financial disincentives to make it more costly to burn coal in power stations without CCS, whilst, at the same time, provide financial incentives for existing coal fired power stations to be fully converted to burn biomass. The result is that Coal Operators in the UK are for the foreseeable future likely to see their market for coal shrinking dramatically.

All that may sound good to you, if you worry about protecting the countryside from being treated as one large coal bunker, or you are concerned about climate change.

Except it is not all good news. The expected decline in the use of coal for power generation purposes is going to take years to achieve. In the meantime, we may be starting to witness an increase in planning applications for new opencast mines across the UK, as Coal Operators realise that they must try to cash in on the investments they have already made before the coal market dries up.

This month LAON can report, in its 7th Review of Opencast Sites available here:

https://nottingham.indymedia.org/articles/3309

 that two new proposals have been made recently, one for a new 10m tonne site called Cauldhall, near Rosewell in Midlothian (ironically by Scottish Coal) and the other at the Deanfield site for 1.18m tonnes at Sharleston near Wakefield, where UK Coal, another coal company which nearly went into administration this year, intends to surface mine. As a consequence, The Stop Opencast in Sharlston (SOS) group has joined the Network

That is not the only bad news about the surface mining of coal in England. The Government is proposing, through the Growth and Infrastructure Bill (Clause 21), to make it easier to dig up coal in England, just when they are planning to reduce the role coal plays in producing electricity through the Energy Bill. This clause of the Bill is likely to be debated by the Growth and Infrastructure Public Bill Committee, along with our evidence, on Tuesday 4th December.

LAON’s concern about these policy changes is this. Given the economic difficulties that the UK Coal Industry finds itself in, is this the right time to be changing the planning system to make it easier for Coal Operators to get permission for new opencast mines? This is increasing the risk that many more opencast sites are left ‘mothballed’ and pock-marking our country-side if UK Coal Producers find that they are increasingly priced out of their own declining domestic market. In our view, this is not the time to relax planning controls at all for new surface mines in England

We are hoping that the Government realises the inconsistencies in its current policy proposals and whilst it continues with its plans to decarbonise the generating sector, it revises its plans and not allow any plans to surface mine coal in England to be treated as a Major Infrastructure Project.

A referenced version of this press release is available by contacting LAON at the email address below.

About LAON

The Loose Anti-Opencast Network (LAON) has been in existence since 2009. It functions as a medium through which to oppose open cast mine applications. At present LAON links individuals and groups in N Ireland (Just Say No to Lignite), Scotland (Coal Action Scotland), Wales (Green Valleys Alliance, The Merthyr Tydfil Anti Opencast Campaign), England, (Coal Action Network), Northumberland, (Whittonstall Action Group, Halton Lea Gate Residents)) Co Durham (Pont Valley Network), Leeds, Sheffield (Cowley Residents Action Group), Kirklees, (Skelmansthorpe Action Group)  Nottinghamshire (Shortwood Farm Opencast Opposition), Derbyshire (West Hallum Environment Group, Smalley Action Group and Hilltop Action Group) , Leicestershire (Minorca Opencast Protest Group), Wakefield (Stop Opencast in Sharlston) and Walsall (Alumwell Action Group).

Contacting LAON

Steve Leary LAON’Ss Co-ordinator, at infoatlaon@yahoo.com

You can now follow LAON on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/Seftonchase

EF! Winter Moot 2013: 22-24th February, near Preston

A weekend get-together for people involved in ecological direct action, from fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power to road building. There’ll be discussions and campaign planning – with the emphasis on the tactics and strategies we use, community solidarity and sustainable activism.

A weekend get-together for people involved in ecological direct action, from fighting opencast coal, fracking, GM, nuclear power to road building. There’ll be discussions and campaign planning – with the emphasis on the tactics and strategies we use, community solidarity and sustainable activism. This year we’ll be in Lancashire…

 

Update: full transport details and programme at link below.

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Scottish Coal rail terminal currently shut down – again!

Two people are currently occupying the conveyor tower at Scottish Coal’s Ravenstruther Rail Terminal in South Lanarkshire to prevent coal from being loaded onto freight trains and being transported to Drax Coal Fired Power Station in Yorkshire. The action started at 5am this morning – a banner reading “Coal Kills” was unfurled on the conveyor tower.

Two people are currently occupying the conveyor tower at Scottish Coal’s Ravenstruther Rail Terminal in South Lanarkshire to prevent coal from being loaded onto freight trains and being transported to Drax Coal Fired Power Station in Yorkshire. The action started at 5am this morning – a banner reading “Coal Kills” was unfurled on the conveyor tower. More updates to follow!

Coal Rail Terminal Closed for a 6th time by Coal Action Scotland supporters

At 5:00 this morning two activists scaled the conveyor tower at Scottish Coal’s Ravenstruther Rail Terminal near Lanark, South Lanarkshire, and are currently occupying it and preventing coal from being loaded onto trains which then deliver the coal to power stations. There is currently a freight train on the private rail sidings at the terminal. The activists say they will maintain the occupation until they are forcibly removed by police. This is the 6th time that the site has been closed in anti-coal protests since December 2008.

Jo Reed, one of the occupiers at the terminal, said: “I’m taking this action to cost Scottish Coal money as that’s the only thing they’ll listen to. The coal taken here and transported to Drax Coal Fired Power Station in Yorkshire is destroying people’s health and environment in this area – it’s time it stopped! Burning coal is causing runaway climate change and causing harm at home and abroad.”

Today’s protest follows a week-long direct action camp in July, at Glentaggart East, the site of Scottish Coal’s new mine in South Lanarkshire. Throughout the week around 100 activists targeted infrastructure in the area with an invasion of Mainshill Open Cast Coal Site where 45 activists stopped work on the site for the day, a blockade of Broken Cross Opencast Coal Site and the opencasting of landowner Lord Home’s front garden.

The haulage of coal by HGV is a major issue in the area, and protesters are calling for a stop to all haulage through the villages of Douglas and Glespin.

Glespin resident David Grey said: “Coal from Douglas Valley mines comes right through Douglas and Glespin, past two primary schools with no level crossings. We were promised that this wouldn’t happen when planning permission was granted for the Mainshill mine. Now that the huge site at Glentaggart East and 1 million tonne extension to Broken Cross have been approved, Scottish Coal want to bring even more coal through our communities. Action needs to be taken to prevent this.”

The start of a new 4 million tonne mine at Glentaggart East will make these issues even more pressing. Rob Hearne, participating in the protest today said: “Already over 1000 HGV trips are made through the Douglas Valley to railheads every week. Glentaggart East will only add to this and make the problem worse with another 333 trips a week.”

It is estimated that today’s action will stop around 4,000 tonnes of coal from being transported to Drax Coal Fired Power Station and cost Scottish Coal at least £200,000.

Coal Action Scotland
e-mail: contact@coalactionscotland.org.uk
 Homepage: http://coalactionscotland.org.uk/