Whitehaven sits on the edge of the Lake District National Park, an area whose beauty inspired William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter. Nature and industry have long vied for supremacy in this part of England. “The same is true for oil wells and gas wells.” “It’s blindingly obvious that the quickest way to stop these carbon emissions and to make radical changes - which we have to do in the next 10 years - is to stop opening any new coal mines,” said Maggie Mason, a local opponent of the mine. “Showing these mines can be made by law…to capture greenhouse gas emissions and required to offset any residual impact…is true environmental leadership,” he said. Plans show curved modern buildings that blend in with the surrounding hills.Īlexander Greaves, a lawyer for the mining company, said while opening a new coal mine might look bad at first glance, the Cumbria County project aims to be different be design. West Cumbria Mining says it will be the world’s first net-zero coal mine, with all of its carbon emissions reduced or offset by credits to the Gold Standard Foundation, an environmental organization. The company describes the project as a new kind of mine, far removed from the dirty, dangerous behemoths whose brick and steel skeletons dot the region’s landscape. It plans to process the coal on the site of a shuttered chemical plant in Whitehaven, 340 miles (550 kilometers) northwest of London. West Cumbria Mining, the company hoping to build Britain’s first deep coal mine in three decades, wants to extract coking coal - a type used to make steel rather than for fuel - from under the Irish Sea.
But Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also pledged to boost prosperity in England’s neglected north with new factories, roads, railways and other infrastructure that environmentalists say is at odds with the government’s green agenda.
The proposed deep mine symbolizes a dilemma facing the British government: It aims to generate all of the U.K.’s electricity from clean energy sources by 2035 and to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. “It sends a signal to the rest of the world that the U.K. sets itself out as a leader, but it’s building a coal mine, which is the most polluting thing that you can do,” Rebecca Willis, a professor of energy and climate governance at Lancaster University, said. Many scientists and activists consider the two-week COP26 conference a last chance to nail down carbon-cutting promises that could keep global warming within manageable limits. They say it sends a disastrous message as the United Kingdom welcomes world leaders, advocates, diplomats and scientists to Glasgow, Scotland, for a United Nations Climate Change Conference that starts Oct. To Cradduck, a plan for a new coal mine that could bring hundreds of jobs is a sign that “at least someone’s interested in the area” and an opportunity “for people who have got mining in their blood.”īut environmentalists view the proposed mine with horror. The nuclear power plant is being decommissioned. The chemical factory that employed thousands is gone.
The coal mine where the 74-year-old once worked has long closed. WHITEHAVEN, England (AP) - In the patchwork of hills, lakes and sea that make up England’s northwest corner, most people see beauty.
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