James Hansen makes good points here but I think he’s wrong to think that the UK government, this government, or its Prime Minister, will feel humiliated by … well, actually, by almost anything.
We seem now to live in a world where many politicians feel no shame about acting in contradiction to their words, or not acting at all when they’ve said they would.
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Very hi-tech and shiny with not speck of coal dust in sight. The only thing Boris will be humiliated about is that nobody thought to paint it all green.
“Cumbria County Council approved the £165m West Cumbria Mining plan in Whitehaven in October.
The government could have called in the plans for an inquiry, but has chosen not to do so, the council said.”
The Cumbria County Council Planning Committee consists of 8 Conservatives, 6 Labour and 3 LibDems. Presumably prior to the last election there was a Labour majority. It would appear that the Planning Committee has now approved this mine proposal 3 times, the company having to address various issues raised by FOE etc. These have been addressed and democracy is working.
The coal is required by the steel industry, why import it from places with lesser health and safety and environmental monitoring regimes?
“The coal is required by the steel industry, why import it from places with lesser health and safety and environmental monitoring regimes?”
Because the overall lifetime of the coal mine exceeds the UK’s projected requirement for coking coal. Which currently falls short of the 2049 operating permission. Beyond that projected requirement, it will be exporting coal. And if it wasn’t it wouldn’t be a financially attractive investment.
At this time the operator of the coal mine will be looking at pushing to extend the lifetime of the extraction process beyond 2049.
Yes, the standards of the current Government politicians have certainly shrunk to a low ebb. I think this was initiated by Trump in the USA Hopefully Joe Biden will now raise the standards considerably. Thank goodness he won and pushed out Trump.
Johnson is to some extent a copy of Trump. Interesting to think back to 1963 when John Profumo mislead Parliament about liaison with Christine Keebler he had to resign immediately and the incident very nearly brought down the McMillan Government . Could one see that happening in Westminster today? Not very likely.
Using coal to make steel can surely only be a short term solution
Hydrogen as a reducing agent looks like a better long term bet
https://www.rechargenews.com/transition/-world-first-as-hydrogen-used-to-power-commercial-steel-production/2-1-799308
(i think Linde also owns British Oxygen )
More steel recycling and the ability to turn low grade recycled steel into higher grade steel would help.
A bit more imagination needed perhaps
I agree that hydrogen could / should eventually displace coal for steel production; however currently the only cost effective ways of producing hydrogen in large quantities are using fossil fuels. As of 2020, the majority of hydrogen (∼95%) was produced from fossil fuels by steam reforming of natural gas, partial oxidation of methane, and coal gasification. If we are to transition our natural gas grid to hydrogen huge quantities will be required. Green hydrogen will take a long time to be commercially available in sufficient quantities unless there is a significant technical development.
A significant technical development will have to happen. It will have to happen in the next twenty years. Or thirty years at the very most. And that is each and every section of the economy. There is no alternative.
Scary stuff.
Imagine 35 years ago telling a coal miner that in 2021 a Conservative gubmint would open up a coal mine and the Labour Party would try and stop it happening …
Beyond my Ken
A common characteristic – if not a prerequisite – of the sociopaths who become political leaders, CEOs, Directors General, influencers, journalists and other undesirables is their ability to remain unembarrassed and unhumiliated and shrug off failure like a Dose after Penicillin.
Combine that with the system of least-worst choice of selecting our governance in the West and you can see why we get the pathetic leadership that we do. By avoidance we’ve now got a buffoon who takes orders from Wilfred’s Mum and the USA has a creepy old bloke who sniffs children. These are not people who are going to be embarrassed by an open letter from a failed climate modeller – none of whose predictions have subsequently come to pass. Neither is there much leverage in the implied threat of sending a copy to that resurrected member of the living dead now appointed by Sniffer Biden to lurch about parroting about the weather. How would Hansen know which of his six residences to send it to – or has US Postal got a chase ‘plane to follow his private Gulfstream?
Meanwhile Spring approaches with its ice, fog, blizzards and snowdrops and there are other Reasons to be Cheerful. A bloke on Channel 4 asked Gummer some mildly inconvenient questions to which the arch-trougher replied with some irritated and unconvincing waffle. That was to be expected – but the questions weren’t. And with a bit of luck Horrorbin will retire soon – perhaps successors are beginning to jostle.