The UK has approved a brand new coal mine in West Cumbria. Michael Gove, Levelling Up secretary, gave the green light to the plan, which will result in an investment of up to £165 million and the creation of 500 new jobs.
The is great news for both British national / energy security and economic growth, as well as boosting a deindustrialised part of the country that needed jobs and support.
However if we look at the mainstream media like the Guardian, rather than celebrating the fact that a deprived part of the country is getting new jobs and wealth, or the fact that the UK has become less reliant on imported coking coal for steelmaking (rather than relying on totalitarian regimes like Russia to supply it) or reducing the chances of losing more of the British steel industry to cheap, foreign imports, they are scathing.
The only thing they are concerned with is cutting CO2 emissions. To Hell with economic growth, jobs and national security. They don’t mention the CO2 saved from shipping in coal from the other side of the world, or the tiny fraction of CO2 this will produce in the grand scheme of things. In their eyes the UK is the master of evil.
But Germany, which is reopening coal power stations and expanding coal mines, which will be much worse than the UK, doesn’t get a mention of a single word of criticism. Funny that. They can’t bring themselves to criticise the head of the EU, or compare the UK’s much better carbon action to Germany.
Not only that but the Guardian seems to be deliberately misleading readers (or its journalists couldn’t be bothered to do some proper research) by asking where these “exports will go is uncertain, as most European steelmakers are turning away from the use of coal and adopting green methods such as electric arc furnaces and renewable energy.”
This is simply untrue. We are decades away from mainstream, cheap green steel, which uses electricity and/or hydrogen to make steel from iron ore. You can make steel from scrap or pig iron using an arc furnace but not ore. That requires coking coal like the one produced at the mine. Does the Guardian know this but doesn’t want people to support the mine, or think about anything else apart from getting to net zero ASAP?
We are in an absurd position where so called socialists are backing the deindustrialisation of the UK and the export of jobs and wealth out of the UK to chase a fantasy of the UK saving the world by cutting CO2 emissions by an extra tiny amount. No mention of China or India and their huge CO2 emissions. This metallurgical coal mine will produce 2.8 million tonnes of coal per year, whereas in China they dig up over 13 million tonnes per Day! I don’t see the Guardian writing front page articles on this.
Caroline Lucas, a Green MP, described this coal mine as a “crime against humanity “crime against humanity” which the Guardian gleefully printed. This is they type of thing this country has to face up to and defeat if we are to boost our economy and increase living standards and jobs. The government needs to ignore these Eco warriors with the microphone, and do what is best for the UK, not ship jobs and wealth abroad and pretend the CO2 made there and from shipping here has nothing to do with us. These people would rather see us living in communal tower blocks with no heating, reliant on state run buses and ration vouchers for insects and get to net zero than live in today’s world. We have to stop listening to them before the country is damaged beyond repair.