Hatfield Colliery Closure

[mushroom25]

the rundown of hatfield colliery has been unexpectedly accelerated, with its almost immediate closure announced -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-33321874
with the only other 2 deep mines already set to close this year, 2015 will see the end of deep mining in the uk after hundreds of years.

with coal now selling at $75 per tonne and more and more of the uk's energy needs now met by oil, gas and alternative sources, there's probably no economic case for the comparatively expensive UK deep mining operation. but, much of our energy needs now heavily depends on other countries, even though there are reserves left still to exploit here. should raw economics be allowed to take precedence over the possibility of maintaining independent sources of energy for the future?

[Zacs-Master]

I don't understand your last sentence. The coal isn't going anywhere so as (if) we become more desperate for resources it will become more viable to extract and use it.

[mikey4444]

So I guess this will mean that we will be importing even more coal, from Perth, Australia ! What a sensible solution....an island made of coal, importing it from the other side of the world !

More employment for Oz workers, and less for British workers...what a marvelous fiscal plan.

[Zacs-Master]

A fiscal plan where the taxpayers prop up a non profitable industry isn't the answer Mikey. Not if you're a taxpayer.

[douglas9401]

Raw economics only rule when it's the common working man involved.

Exhibit one m'lud: Proposal to spend BILLIONS of pounds on tarting up a rat infested old building by the Thames.

There's always money available for the important stuff.

[EDDIE51]

How can you justify producing coal that can not be sold? The article states that 'there is no market for the coal and it is just being stockpiled'

[mikey4444]

Eddie....vast amounts of coal are being imported into South Wales, from Oz, to be used at Aberthaw Power Station.

Hatfield is considerable closer to South Wales than Oz is...divert the Hatfield coal just a few miles south....no imports needed and no Yorkshire coal miners need to be made redundant...simples !

[EDDIE51]

Mikey Yes I know that, but it is cheaper ( a lot cheaper) to import coal 5,000 miles from Oz than to use local produced deep mined coal. Australian coal is produced in open cast mines at a small fraction of the price of deep mined coal. Even with the transport cost it is considerably cheaper.

[Zacs-Master]

Mikey I'd read the article before posting more points which completely ignore the economics if I were you.

[mikey4444]

Eddie.....it is only cheaper to import coal from Oz, because the power stations don't have to pay all the Social Security benefits that will ensue, when the Yorkshire miners are sacked, so the economics are far more complicated than just the price of coal. That will need to be paid by you and I, and all the other tax payers. The power generators will be laughing all the way to the bank.

But there is a more important principle at stake here. As an island race, we shouldn't be importing stuff from overseas, when we can produce it ourselves.
We are leaving ourselves open to be hostages to fortune.

[Zacs-Master]

Rather than hostages of the Unions eh?

[mikey4444]

Zacs...I have read the link...see my reference to Aberthaw Power Station. It is wrong to say that we don't need coal anymore, as they plainly do along the coast from me. They should be burning British coal, not foreign coal.

But perhaps that is too old fashioned these days...protecting British jobs that is.

[agchristie]

Yes,kind of undermining Mikey's case.....

[mikey4444]

Zacs..there hasn't been any serious industrial disputes in the coal mining industry for over 30 years now, so that is just a red herring.

[mikey4444]

agchristie...thanks...it isn't rocket science ! We should be protecting British jobs as much as possible.

We are not very good at growing oranges in Britain, or pineapples come to that, but we more than capable of producing coal !

[Buenchico]

We were in a position to be able to close down all British mines in the 1960s. We should have done it then and moved to all-nuclear electricity generation. It's ridiculous that we've still got coal-fired power plants half a century after they should have been closed down.

[mikey4444]

Buenchico...I am with you on the merits of nuclear energy. It is the only realistic way of ensuring that the lights stay on in the future. Other countries have embraced nuclear power but Britain always seems to hesitate. Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, has still yet to be built.

[mushroom25]

//I don't understand your last sentence. //

the shafts, etc at Hatfield will be back-filled as early as the end of this week; the intent is that there'll be no going back. the coal isn't going anywhere, but there'll be no means of getting at it.

[mikey4444]

Its disgraceful Mush !

[Old_Geezer]

It has always been a controversial issue. Generally the right pointing to the economics and considering it wrong to spend public money keeping something going; the left pointing out than economics is not the only concern, that people having jobs also allows contribution to the public purse, keeps them knowing they are making a contribution, and of course, as mentioned, gives a limited degree of independence on other nations.

I don't suppose one will get agreement on this sort of issue. I'll check out the link later.

[paddywak]

As mushroom says there is no going back once the shafts are filled,but once the pits are closed the skilled workers are gone too.It always surprises me the number of people who think of miners as going off to workwith a pick on their shoulder and a flat cap.Modern mine workers work with million pound machines and in this country at least must work to the Mines and Quarries Act.you can't just pull a guy in off the streets to do the job.At the pit I worked at there was over thirty years of proven reserves of high quality coal and the work force to get it and that was just one pit.The coal is still there,and I'm sure the technology to "clean burn" coal could be developed it's just that we wont be able to get it,and so will become even more rellianant on
foriegn sources