They've discovered an amazing fuel source

Between 2-23 trillion tonnes of it - found's it on land and under the sea - they say it could solve our energy problems for the next 200 - 300 years. Article was in The Times today - It's called COAL - amazing !!!

 

strange post - we do not have a fuel supply problem , we have /coal/wind/hydro/nuclear/solar/gas etc - we have a lack of a fuel & energy policy , hope you didn't buy the times for that nugget of info.

 

I was told by an ex ncb engineer a few months ago that they were doing test bore samples all over the country to ascertain coal reserves for open cast and drift mines.

 

I think you'll find the OP was being ironic mrx; anyway should be the energy minister with such visionary skills, or should that be shadow energy minister.

 

Not a strange post at all - I thought it was more ironic seeing as it's thirty years since the miners strike and we've found this wonderful fuel source. A source we were quick to condemn years ago and here we are sitting on all these reserves

 

uk has 200 years at 100 % electricity production

 

It really does make Thatcher's decision to close our coal industry even more ludicrous.

To be sat on the reserves that we have, we should be looking at every angle to extract the coal and the value.

Im actually involved in the chemical industry and the Americas / Asia are way in front of Europe, in terms of structural costs and reduced "red tape". Shale Gas is a great example, where EU is sitting on good reserves, but are a projected 10-15 years behind. The forecast is that Americas will have that much Shale Gas, they will be a net exporter to EU and will reach a partner-trade agreement whereby EU buys the gas and then sells back other EU produced items.

 

Fuel crisis...just an excuse to put the price up..

[video=youtube;NBHHqw6TRXk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBHHqw6TRXk[/video]

 

Pity ther are no miners left to get it out

 

Young nudge could talk it out

 

They'll not need miners - it'll be done remotely like drilling for oil but drilling for coil

 

I still don't understand it.

 

Aye, it was oft said there was more coal mined in The Alma than ever there was at Darfield Main.:biggrin:

 

The Western world will never go back to relying on coal as a major source of energy as it will complete undermine this man-made global warming myth they have been selling us for the last 20 years to justify the carbon tax that's on practically everything.

 

If they can perfect carbon capture and storage and it becomes cheaper than other fuel sources they'll do it.

 

Acid gasses ?
Sox nox ?

 

Our country made the decision 20 years ago that it doesn't want to make/sell stuff that you can actually see or touch, our whole economy is based purely on numbers on a computer screen that go up and down. Basically the same industry that almost completely collapsed in 2009 yet the only people who lost their jobs and faced years of hardship were the people who had nothing to do with it.

Anywhere else there'd be riots and protests in the streets of the capital.

 

The most ridiculous aspect of destroying the mining industry that no one ever talks about is that although they closed the mines, they didn't close the coal burning power stations. So we stopped producing coal, but didn't stop burning it. We now import millions of tonnes of coal.

Many mines that were closed were making a profit, that's the first income the government lost. The second is the income tax from the miners salaries. Many of the miners made redundant (another cost to the government) were unable to find alternative employment, so the government had to pay them benefits. Instead of receiving income tax they were paying out benefits, a double hit. Then there's the associated social problems as a result of unemployment and poverty. And all that's before you have to buy in coal from other countries. Columbian coal (or wherever they're importing it from now, China probably) produces just as much CO2 as British coal, but millions of tonnes of diesel are burnt shipping the stuff over. Then there's the fact that we're supporting what amounts to slave labour in the hell holes that are the mines in some foreign countries. Plus the environmental damage these countries suffer. In Britain we take out the coal, put everything back where it was and landscape the whole place when it's done. In some other countries they destroy entire mountains.

The coal industry needed modernising and some pruning. Moving towards a greener energy solution makes sense for all of us. But it needed doing slowly, not destroying in one fell swoop. There's a huge misapprehension that the only people to lose out after the closure of the pits were the mining communities. It's true that we were hit the hardest, but in reality the whole country took a big step backwards and everyone became poorer from such an ill conceived political strategy. Workers in all industries lost many of their rights, our balance of trade was effected increasing the trade deficit, we threw away any hope of being self sufficient in terms of energy production, income tax fell, benefit payments increased, but at least we... I dunno, what were the positives?

 

Jay - there are three pits remaining but no industry
They are modern
All the rest is not news

 

Didn't a lot of our electricity production switch to gas fired power stations? They were cleaner, greener, and didn't come with thousands of militant unionised workers.