The UK government has announced it will be reopening over 150 coal mines and creating over 50 others in a major turnaround of policy.
The Minister for energy Olive Bassflouy spoke to Newsishy outside parliament, we asked her why such a drastic measure?
“Unfortunately we have no choice, the country’s oil and gas reserves are at an all time low and green energy underinvestment means that it still only tops up what we use by a small amount.
The UK has millions of tonnes of coal just waiting to be mined so we are going to mine it.”
WE ALL WANT CLEAN AIR
The UK has certain limits on how much coal can be burned each year, how will this affect it?
“It won’t affect it at all, we have removed those limits. Look, we all want clean air and healthy kids but it would also be nice for our fridges to stay cool and our life support devices to keep working and at the rate we are going neither will be.”
Is it really that bad?
“Yes”
Do we still have the infrastructure in place to support the entire coal industry starting up again?
“Oh definitely, all the towns and villages that flourished during the previous coal era are still there albeit in a bit of a state but all those coal miners had children and some of them have children now too so there is no shortage of a workforce.
These towns will come back to life again. We still have the train lines and the power stations. It’s just a matter of getting it up out of the ground.”
So does this mean that the UK is now protected from all the volatility of the energy sector?
“Absolutely, for another 3 years”
Why only 3 years?
“That’s how much coal we have, after that we’ll be running on vapours”
Shit.
