<p>A public inquiry into the proposed West Cumbria coking coal mine in Copeland begun last week. The inquiry is expected to last 4 weeks. Some 80 organisations, including Greenpeace and The Wildlife Trusts, signed the letter to the Prime Minister, calling for the inquiry, in which they described the mystifying' disbelief that the Government had not intervened over the approval of plans for the mine in Whitehaven. In a letter coordinated by Greenpeace and countryside charity CPRE, the environmental groups said the UK is due to play host to the international Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.</p><p>Local MP's Trudy Harrison (Copeland) and Mark Jenkinson (Workington) have both been outspoken in their support of the mine which is sad to create hundreds of badly needed jobs. They say the coking coal that would be produced is the only fuel that can be used to create steel, which we need to meet our targets of Net Zero by 2050.</p><p>The mine will supply the British and European steel industry with locally produced metallurgical coal. Amounting to two million tonnes each year, British steelmakers currently import all of their metallurgical coal requirements to supply the UK’s two primary steel manufacturers at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot. Europe also relies on metallurgical coal imports of more than fifty million tonnes each year. As a result, metallurgical coal is being railed and shipped thousands of added miles from overseas mines to customers in the UK and EU. Additional emissions connected with this long-distance production, handling and transportation are thus being ‘offshored. Woodhouse Colliery will be net carbon zero for all aspects of the mining process and delivery of the product to UK customers or port for onward shipping to European customers. This has been achieved by combining a series of proven & emerging technologies, including renewable electricity, methane gas capture and elimination, microgrid power generation, green bio-fuel and gold standard carbon offsetting.</p><p>This development was first proposed in 2014 and has been given planning approval by Cumbria County Council three times.</p>
<p>A public inquiry into the proposed West Cumbria coking coal mine in Copeland begun last week. The inquiry is expected to last 4 weeks. Some 80 organisations, including Greenpeace and The Wildlife Trusts, signed the letter to the Prime Minister, calling for the inquiry, in which they described the mystifying' disbelief that the Government had not intervened over the approval of plans for the mine in Whitehaven. In a letter coordinated by Greenpeace and countryside charity CPRE, the environmental groups said the UK is due to play host to the international Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.</p><p>Local MP's Trudy Harrison (Copeland) and Mark Jenkinson (Workington) have both been outspoken in their support of the mine which is sad to create hundreds of badly needed jobs. They say the coking coal that would be produced is the only fuel that can be used to create steel, which we need to meet our targets of Net Zero by 2050.</p><p>The mine will supply the British and European steel industry with locally produced metallurgical coal. Amounting to two million tonnes each year, British steelmakers currently import all of their metallurgical coal requirements to supply the UK’s two primary steel manufacturers at Scunthorpe and Port Talbot. Europe also relies on metallurgical coal imports of more than fifty million tonnes each year. As a result, metallurgical coal is being railed and shipped thousands of added miles from overseas mines to customers in the UK and EU. Additional emissions connected with this long-distance production, handling and transportation are thus being ‘offshored. Woodhouse Colliery will be net carbon zero for all aspects of the mining process and delivery of the product to UK customers or port for onward shipping to European customers. This has been achieved by combining a series of proven & emerging technologies, including renewable electricity, methane gas capture and elimination, microgrid power generation, green bio-fuel and gold standard carbon offsetting.</p><p>This development was first proposed in 2014 and has been given planning approval by Cumbria County Council three times.</p>
