Roger Helmer: Osborne deals hammer blow to UK coal

From the Lincolnshire Echo a short piece by Roger Helmer MEP:

Back in 2010, soon after the General Election, the then Energy Minister, Conservative Charles Hendry, announced no new coal-fired power stations could be built in the UK without Carbon Capture and Storage. But CCS adds 20 to 25 per cent to the cost of energy (or put it another way, reduces efficiency by the same factor). So – surprise, surprise – there have been no takers. The unintended consequence has been no new coal capacity at all.

I am often asked how Germany can be building a couple of dozen new coal-fired power stations, and we in Britain can’t. This is how. It’s a self-inflicted injury, and our Coalition government is directly responsible for it.

And Osborne’s coup de grace? In deep mines, you need to plan ahead. If the mine is to stay in production, you need plans to exploit new seams and open new coal-faces. That’s a hugely expensive and capital-intensive activity.

Osborne has completely undermined this planning and investment programme with his “carbon floor price”. This price results in turn from the utter failure of the EU’s ETS scheme. ETS was supposed to establish a “market price” for CO2 permits, which would send suitable signals to the market to favour low-carbon generation. But across the EU, the project has failed.

Osborne has responded by adding a uniquely UK tax – with the immediate effect of making energy in the UK even less competitive than the rest of Europe. This hits industry generally. But it especially hits the remaining deep mines.

They can’t realistically predict carbon taxes or coal demand in five years’ time. So they can’t invest in new seams and coal-faces and the remaining deep mines in the UK are condemned to death

Read more: http://www.lincolnshireecho.co.uk/Politics-column-Osborne-hammer-blow-coalfields/story-23197175-detail/story.html