In 2015, the UK government promised to phase out coal power. In April this year, the country had its first coal power-free day since the industrial revolution. Last month, climate minister Claire Perry stood with 20 of her international counterparts and promised to โpower pastย coalโ.
The British coal industry is dead, isnโtย it?
In the UK, there is the impression that the streams of miners leaving the pits like grubby-faced lords of the underworld are a thing of the past. That the pickets, police, projectiles and โ ultimately โ poverty, are the stuff of history textbooks. And that the trucks, noise, dust, and heaps of blackened spoil exist only inย isolated pockets of the isleโฆ and not for muchย longer.
Yet, in two communites hundreds of miles apart, residents are confronted with a very differentย picture.
In Walesโ lush green valleys, there is electrician Eddy Blanche, telling me how heโs given his all in a fight to save his granddaughterโs future. There is hometown oldboy Roy Thomas, carefully photographing all the rubble, mudslides, and other miscellaneous fallout from the huge open hole next to his home. And there is Isobel Tarr and her campaigner colleagues, offering a helping hand, trying to think of new ways to make this industry stop.ย Now.
Then, a six-hour drive to the North East on a beautiful stretch of Northumbrian coast, there is craft worker Lynne Tate, walking her dogs on the beach every day, before poring over the details of a traffic survey back home. There is Rob Noyes, recently graduated and working full-time now as an environmental coordinator, still raging from his student days at the hypocrisy of companies stuck in the past. And Andrew Stark, up for Uni, wondering why the concerns of his generation continue to beย ignored.
The two groups have never met, but they have one thing binding them: opencast coal mining. As far as they are concerned, coal is alive and kicking โย hard.
From the Valleys to theย Beaches
The UKโs largest opencast coal mine is at Ffos-y-Fran, near Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. The mine was granted planning permission in 2005, and has since extracted almost eight million tonnes of coal. The company says it expects to extract around three million tonnes more over the mineโs lifetime. It used to supplyย the nearby Aberthaw power station, but EU emissions regulations means the stationย now must burn less toxic coal imported from Russia andย Australia.
Nonetheless, Miller Argent, Ffos-y-Fran’s owner and operator, wants to extend theย mine.
The Nant Llesg extension would allow the company to extract another six million tonnes of coal from the site, the company claims. The UK used a total ofย 12 million tonnes of coal for powerย inย 2016.
Miller Argent gets to the coal by using large machinery to effectively scrape the coal out of the land. The industry calls this surface mining, in contrast to pit mining of old. Itโs also known as opencast mining, due to the topographical transformation itย creates.
Caerphilly council rejected Miller Argentโs plans for the Nant Llesg extension in August 2015. The company put in an appeal before Christmas the same year. The project remains inย limbo.
Credit: Eddyย Blanche
Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BY–SAย 2.0
Its ultimate fate could be significantly affected by an upcoming report from the UKโs planning inspectorate on a proposed mine 350 milesย away.
On an unspoilt stretch of Northumberlandโs coast lies Druridge Bay, about half an hourโs drive from Newcastle and slightly less in the same direction from the vast Shotton coalย mine.
Banks Mining, the local operator that runs the Shotton mine, has applied for planning permission to open a new mine at Highthorn, sandwiched between two nature reserves, right next to theย bay.
Look east from the dunes and youโll see the sea. Look west, and soon you could see machinery hacking away at the earth, the company hopes. The expectation would be for most of the coal to be sent to local power plants, with some put on the exportย market.
The planning inspectorate is due to give a report containing recommendations on whether the Druridge Bay plan should proceed to Communities Secretary Sajid Javid by December 4. Javid then has three months to make a final decision on the Druridge Bayย project.
So while both projects are stalled, both could still be given a greenย light.
Until that point, plans for new coal mines in the UK remain in stasis โ waiting to see if the government is ready to follow through on its climateย commitments.
Beyondย Climate
Javid originally โcalled-inโ the Druridge Bay project, asking the planning inspectorate to do a full report, because he wanted to know if or how it would fit with the governmentโs wider climate and coal phase-outย policies.
While that makes the case unique in one sense, the objections raised by a motley cast of committed campaigners spanning the country go well beyondย this.
There are some familiarย themes.
Opencast coal mining destroys the landscape in which it is situated. And when you live in the Welsh valleys, or next to a stretch of unspoilt beach that acts as a haven for humans and wildlife alike, this is aย problem.
The lifetime of the mines varies greatly depending on how much coal there is, how much companies can sell it for, and how government policies affect demand. Banks Mining claims the Druridge Bay project would operate for around seven years, while production at Ffos-Y-Fran isn’t scheduled to end until 2022. The longevity of the projects means manyย residents are concened not just about the mines’ impacts, but the amount of time they and their families might have to live withย them.ย
Eddy Blanche is acutely aware of the proposed longevity of the Nant Llesg extension. He toldย me:
โMy granddaughter is now eight.ย I think she was just born when we started fighting this. By the time theyโve so-called restored that land, sheโs going to have finished university for christโs sake. Itโs not a five minute scheme, itโs like 20ย years.โ
Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BY–SAย 2.0
Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BY–SAย 2.0
โI live in a beautiful valley. I live in beautiful area,โ Blancheย enthused.
โI come from London. I was born and bred in Dagenham surrounded by concrete. Iโve lived in the village for 10 years, and I still drive across the Common and every now and again have to pull over and take in the view because it changes everyย day.
โThe cloud coverโs different, the light is different, the sheep are out, the horses are out, the lambs are in the field, the cows are wandering about. And I still sit there, 10 years later, I still stop on the common and go, โyou know, mother nature at herย finestโ.โ
He thinks that Miller Argent simply โdonโt give a shit about the environmentโ, and is convinced the new mine would do irreparable damage to the areaโs beautifulย countryside.
Lynne Tate described Druridge Bay, a five minute drive from her house, in similarly romanticย terms:
โYou get school trips and things in the summer, and you get people having the bucket-and-spade holiday. And thereโs an ice cream shop and craft stall and the cafe, and people will come along with their kids andย everything.โ
โI go down to Druridge Bay every single day unless Iโm on holidays, so itโs 52 weeks of the year Iโm down there, and thereโs so many other people who do the same as me โ you see the same ones at the same times, and if you go at a different time you see totally different people walking their dogs orย walking.โ
โItโs people who like to come here for the peace and quiet and theย tranquility.โ
Rob Noyes, a former Newcastle University student, who joined Tate and others in the local community as part of the Save Druridge campaign, told me that putting an opencast coal mine in such a spot would mean โtaking away something that really is an oasis of open space and freedom; for children playing, for families walkingย aroundโ.
โItโs just a beautiful spot. And the idea that you would want to mine anything there struck me as justย wrong.โ
He said that if the Druridge Bay mine is approved, heโd take inspiration from activists across the country, such as those resisting Cuadrillaโs fracking activity in Lancashire, to try and prevent the project goingย ahead.
Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BY–SAย 2.0
Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BY–SAย 2.0
And itโs not just todayโs residents theyโre fighting for. Time and again, the hours they each spent trying to express the absurdity of planting new opencast coal mines on their doorsteps was justified through reference to futureย generations.
Blanche has a particularly emotional attachment to what the lush valleys around Merthyr mean for hisย family.
โIโve had a new granddaughter born three weeks ago โ when she gets to 10, and walks up on that common, sheโs either going to see an opencast mine or sheโs going to see a beautiful green field. If she sees a beautiful green field, I can say to her โthis is here because grandad helped protect it. Grandad helped to keep it there 10 years ago before you was born. Grandad was fighting to protectย this.โ
โIf itโs an opencast mine and she says โGrandad, why is this place all black, why didnโt you do anything about it?โ, I can honestly look her in the eye and say โI tried toโ. If youโre not going to do it for yourself, do it for your children, do it for your grandchildren.โย ย
Tate is similarly resolute. She canโt understand why companies, the government, and local councils wonโt learn from pastย mistakes:
โItโs very important for our children and grandchildren that we stop digging for coal now. We know whatโs happened in the past โ it was black gold back then. We thought then that this was one of the greatest finds and we had all this fuel toย burn.
โBut now we know the damage that it causes. And it causes it not just in relation to the CO2 gas but also to getting it out of the ground and spoiling it for the community and tourism and theย wildlife.โ
And then thereโs Andrew Stark, a fresh-faced politics student angry that, once again, his generation may be about to be stitched-up by those that wonโt be around to suffer theย consequences:
โAs a young person, I feel our generation has been handed quite a bad deal. This isnโt really something that is going to affect the developers that are older than us in their lifetime. Itโs going to affect my generation in our lifetimes, and my kidsโ and grandkidsโ futures. So itโs important to just stand our ground and say, โwe donโt want our future to beย ruinedโ.โ
Deaf toย Democracy
This indignation, this sense that the will of the people is being ignored, extends to the institutions that are meant to represent their communities and the companies trying to muscle in on theirย turf.
Isobel Tarr, a campaigner with the Coal Action network, which has spent a lot of time with local residents around the Welsh valleys fighting to hold coal companies to account, said that in many cases companies are akin to โa really bad neighbourโ that just โshow up and treat them disrespectfully forย yearsโ.
โLocal people have told us that they have tried again and again to use the institutional channels โ through their local councils, through their democratic representatives in the Welsh assembly and appealing to the UK government โ to try and protest this mine. Theyโve been to the planning application enquiries, theyโve been lodging objections through the planning system, and have found again and again that their objections have beenย ignored.
โSo people are very frustrated with the lack of democratic process that has gone into deciding that this mine should exist on theirย doorstep.โ
Noyes was similarly motivated to try and hold Banks Mining and the Northumberland authorities, that have so far waved-through the plans, toย account:
โIn Druridge Bay, itโs just a drastic overhaul of any form of localย democracy.โ
โItโs just unfair. It just struck me as totally wrong that an area with some of the highest levels of air pollution in the country, and some of the lowest levels of economic growth in the country would then have a coal mine struck on it with 50 short term jobs being used as the prime argument for bringing 300 HGVs to the area perย day.โ
Coal mining jobs across the UK are in steady decline. The industry employed around 1,146ย people in 2016, according to figures first reportedย by DeSmog UK. That had fallen to justย 644 people by Septemberย 2017.
And how have the companies treated those that already live with the noise, dust, dirt and disruption that the mines bring? According to Roy Thomas, who can see the existing Ffos-y-Fran mine from his driveway: โWeโve had nothing at all. Onlyย arguments.โ
Thomas spent an afternoon giving a tour of the Ffos-y-Fran mine. His family has lived in the same house for generations, and Thomas can point out every landscape change, every possibly unstable pile of rubble, every flood or mudslideย hazard.
Pointing to the rubble discarded in huge mounds as the mining progresses, he showed me how โitโs just gone up and up andย upโ.
Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BY–SAย 2.0
Credit: Mat Hope/DeSmog UK CC BY–SAย 2.0
Thomas has meticulously photographed and documented hundreds of problems that he claims to have experienced from the existing mine โ from cracks in his house he says are from blasting, to overflowing ponds and outlets when the mine floods. He has created an astonishing physicalย archive.
โIt was cruel what we went throughโ, he told me. Miller Argent has โno regards for anyone livingย hereโ.
Despite his efforts, he says complaints fallย on deaf ears. The company responds with โweโre sorry blah blah blah, but they donโt do anything about itโ, heย said.
So what does he recommend those at Druridge Bay do, to ensure they don’t get a similarly rawย deal?ย
โIโd have every photo and every letter on aย boardโ.
โShow them what this mine hasย done.โ
But even if the companies pass on part of their profits โ as both Miller Argent and Banks Mining do through community benefit funds โ none of the residents are convinced the compensation would beย sufficient.
Blanche is particularly sceptical about what in his view is little more than an effort to buy-off theย community:
โThey want to dig up Nant Llesg to line somebodyโs pocket โ because thatโs what itโs about, the truth of the matter is simple. They talk about the community fund, or the compensation scheme as I like to call it, and how theyโre going to give so many millions to the community, and how theyโre going to create 270 jobs for the local community.ย Thatโs not what theyโre doing itย for.โ
Neither Miller Argent or Banks Mining responded to a request to comment for thisย story.
Keep it in theย Ground
So the UKโs coal mining industry is not dead. Not yet atย least.
Guy Shrubsole, climate campaigner with Friends of the Earth, which supported the Save Druridge campaign, thinks the Communities’ Secretary’s decisionย could be a watershed moment for the UKโs efforts to move away from fossilย fuels.
โI think this really gets to the crux of the phrase โkeep it in the groundโ. If we want to keep the fossil fuels in the ground that we canโt afford to burn, then that really has to start biting in countries like the UK โ and particularly on fossil fuels like coal โย now.โ
He points to scientific evidence that suggests 80 percent of known coal reserves need to be left in the ground if countries are going to prevent temperatures rising more than two degrees above pre-industrialย levels.
And there is little evidence to suggest the public want to see a resurgence for the worldโs dirtiestย fuel.
A recent poll, albeit for a pro-nuclear power lobby group, found only four percent of the public actively supported the use of coal power. In contrast, the governmentโs own polling consistently shows around 80 percent of respondents support the use of renewable technologies such as wind and solar to generateย power.
This potentially creates the political space for the government to denounce its support for the fossil fuel industry and reaffirm its commitment to action on climate change, Shrubsoleย argued.
โThis obviously has to stop and this has to stop now. And Druridge Bay could be this fantastic opportunity for the secretary of state to say โno, thatโs it, weโve had enough. Weโre phasing out coal power stations, and weโre going to end coal extractionย tooโ.โ
โWe have to stop giving consent to new coalย mines.โ
If Javid does reject the plans, the shockwaves will be felt beyond the UK. And the campaigners know that. Blanche knowsย that:
โFrom my involvement with [the campaign], you start realising that itโs not just about my little corner of the community. The problem weโve got with burning fossil fuels is a global issue that needs to be stopped. Something needs to be done aboutย it.โ
Credit: Coal Actionย Network
Credit: Coal Actionย Network
Main image credit: Eddyย Blanche
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