Those of us old enough to remember the miners' strike in the early 80s will have vivid memories of the confrontations that ensued. But now there is a new conflict. It isn't about unprofitable pits or the future of the coal industry, as it was back then. It's about the environmental impacts of burning coal. At the heart of this is the symbolism of Kingsnorth power station. We had the triumph of the Kingsnorth 6, but we also had the despair of the Drax 29.
But there is a broader issue and that involves the extraction of the coal itself. There appears to be an increasing trend for obtaining coal through the opencast mining process. This is highly destructive to the local environment and has an impact on local communities.
This issue has snapped into focus this summer at Mainshill Wood in South Lanarkshire.
Back in July the Mainshill Solidarity Camp was established in order to protest against the expansion of opencast mining in the area. It was subsequently joined for a week by the Scottish Climate Camp. The protests have successfully generated a lot of media attention. Note the following article in the Sunday Herald.
If the expansion goes ahead, this could become one of the largest opencast mines in Europe.
The coal extracted from here feeds Drax power station in Yorkshire.
Given Greenpeace's history and expertise in challenging environmentally destructive practices, I believe there may be the potential for a campaign here.
Barry
Update 24/8/09
It seems that Mainshill isn't the only area being targeted by Scottish Coal - as this article from the Scotsman points out:
'Scottish Coal has applied for planning permission to extract two-million tons of coal from Airfield Farm, on the boundary of Midlothian and East Lothian, between the villages of Cousland and Ormiston'.
Open cast mining is rapidly becoming a major issue. With all the major environmental NGOs against coal expansion, this is highly unwelcome.
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