Some interesting views, the cell on lamp pots is a tad inventive, providing we covered it with a minimum 5 years jail with no parole for wilful damage!
But the Coal is there and there are ways of extracting it less dangerously now, I only know DOSCO but if
there is a safer method be interested to know more. Don't know a lot about the Scottish Coal reserves, I do know it is a real issue to reopen mining where it has been done before but I guess there must be ways. In England I do know about Berkswell, Belvoir 2 and Evesham and it is my belief, (cant prove it as nobody was allowed to see the drill samples from some sites as the surveys were done in the Thatcher era and sent straight to London so nobody was able to see just how rich the seams were!), that Evesham particularly is huge. Even in the existing areas mines were, as Gordon rightly says, closed for political reason as well as economic, and one has to question the Subsidy against the costs of unemployment benefit. Nobody involved would dispute most mines were hot, wet, dirty and smelly, and could be some danger, but accidents these days are rare and technology for extraction has changed.
Its not just about burning it, its about all the chemical extracts as well and the myriad of things made from Coal, but even burning it now there are safer methods surely it is wise to mine some of it to maintain and develop the skills in extraction?
We will be back to it one day I am sure because if we covered the whole of the South Downs with cells we couldn't come close to generating what we need and the costs would be astronomic?
