Coal Jobs- Editorial News Feb 2009 from The Institute of Mining Minerals and Materials

Coal news up dates from IOM3:

Celtic Energy re-opened an existing railroad line to carry output from the East Pit opencast site
to the coal washery. Each traiload can carry 1,400t of coal, equivalent to 70 lorry loads! The pit returned to full production in Sept. 08 due to growing demand for coal.

The investment will be in East Pit (Gwaun Cae Gurwen), where the company has already spent a total of £4 million in gearing up for production. This includes a £1.4 million spend alone on a new excavator and the introduction of a double shift in order to meet growing demand for Welsh coal. In total the number of jobs provided at the site will rise from 23 to 86, with 38 staff moving from other Celtic Energy sites. A major recruitment drive was launched to attract local people to fill the remaining positions.

Further investment will provide a £100 million boost to the local economy over 7 years.

The Institute hails such news in the face of current hesitations and job losses.

Let me add once more that almost all serious observers and one in particular the OECD Observer consider that "the focus on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) seems particularily promising. cf. OECD refs 3,4, 5. below. I do indeed trust that OECD will finalise credible economic and financial instruments necessary to ensure that miners faith will turn into fact rather than fiction and greenhouse gas (GHG) friction.

More...

Celtic Energy Coal Video

Menace and Opportunity

There are, of course, opponents to Fossil Fuel, and coal in particular. I have included one such LINK, the first I came across on UK mining operations.

Remark

I am afraid that much persuasion (carrot)clout(stick) and some disaster will be necessary before such major bad-play as one has seen to-date from the big two China and USA. (Coal and Power generation).

Strangely, CCS inertia, appears more prevailant in "dematerialised fields" partly in Economics (excepting the Stein Report) and more so in Financial issues than in strictly scientific, engineering and technological fields, or are the latter simply better qualified to understand the physical mechanics and dynamics of climate change?

References.

1. Celtic Energy

2. Celtic Energy Coal Video


2. OECD Observer

4. Climate Change, Growth and Stability Highlights of the OECD forum 2008. Observer Suppliment Nov. 2008.

5. More articles : OECD.org

SPOOKY? - Coal Mining Debris Rule Is Approved - This adds to Industries already poor image as a major source of CO2-GHG Emissions

As a member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, UK. I am posting this as much as a reminder-obligation to bring this article to the attention of out concerned professional members experts in the field as well as the wider blogger communities

"WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday approved a final rule that will make it easier for coal companies to dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys.
The rule is one of the most contentious of all the regulations emerging from the White House in President Bush’s last weeks in office.

James L. Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, confirmed in an interview that the rule had been approved by the White House Office of Management and Budget. That clears the way for publication in the Federal Register, the last stage in the rule-making process.

Stephen L. Johnson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, concurred in the rule, first proposed nearly five years ago by the Interior Department, which regulates coal mining.

Edward C. Hopkins, a policy analyst at the Sierra Club, said: “The E.P.A.’s own scientists have concluded that dumping mining waste into streams devastates downstream water quality. By signing off on this rule, the agency has abdicated its responsibility.”

Environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council see the mountaintop mining rule and pending changes in air pollution regulations as part of a final effort by the Bush administration to cater to the needs of energy industries.

The proposal that would give more leeway to coal-burning power plants, to increase their emissions when they make repairs and renovations, was on the original wish list of the energy task force convened by Vice President Dick Cheney in 2001."


SOURCES:

1. Full news article ....

2. Graphical representation of Mountain Mining