Coal Madness

For some time I had been trying to find some soft coal, I manged to get in touch with a mine in OK who let me have some, (great coal it is to), I was talking to the manager, I asked where the coal they were mining was headed, to my surprise I was told that the Coal was of very high Quality low sulphur, high BTU etc, and went to the UK or China.
I was surprised to hear that the coal was going to the UK, when the mines in the UK were shut by Mrs M Thatcher, my Dad was put out of work, along with many many others, the UK has a abundance of coal, and high unemployment plus a trade deficit, all you hear is that, burning coal is bad environmental, and we should not use it, what on earth sense then does it make to ship it all the way to the UK, and burn it there, and even less sense to sell our own resources to the Chinese, so that they can to do our manufacturing for us, and use the coal just as they like.
Between the big corporations, stock traders and ******* government ( I don't care whether it Dem or Rep all the same pot of worms to me) we don't have a very bright future.

You are asking a "why" type question and there really is no answer for it.

I am not really being disrespectful to you, it is just that there are a lot of these issues out there. For instance I live in Maine, the most heavily forested state in the nation and a economy that runs on forestry products. Despite having plenty of wood, plenty of loggers and plenty of paper mills, for some reason the mills here buy wood from Finland and Norway, haul it across the Atlantic, dump it in Portsmouth NH, then ship it up by train to make paper in Skowheagan Maine. I live only 45 minutes away from that paper mill and yet last week, to get rid of a load of wood, I had to cut it into 8 foot sections and haul it to another paper mill that was half way across the state because it is the only one taking that type of wood. Everyday though, that paper mill in Skowheagan Maine takes a train load of wood out of New Brunswick, Canada. EVERY DAY. Then we wonder why the Emerald ash borer has migrated, or that of the Spruce Budworm, or the Long Horned Beetle.

In returning the conversation to coal however, I too thought the UK had a vibrant coal mining industry.

Easy answer - Kyoto Protocol and Carbon Credits.

I'll show my hand - I was born and am still in the UK. My Grandfather was a colliery manager. Coal is nigh on dead here domestically, green fever seems to have everyone in a vice grip. The latest fad seems to be to install thin walled pressed steel log burners as supplementary room heaters to natural gas central heating.

The UK does have coal reserves but they are mostly considered to be uneconomic - but still we are building massive offshore windfarms and taxpayers money is being paid out on feed-in tariff subsidies to those with enough spare cash to put solar panels on their roof - seriously, solar panels on a rock in the northern Atlantic - this is not Nevada.

For domestic purchase we have some Welsh anthracite available in various sizes for bulk delivery (at an eye-watering price) or reformed "eCoCoal" type briquette stuff in bags. Given that all urban areas in the UK are now "smokeless" I think the few active mines left in the East Mids are churning out Bit coal - which can only be exported as it is too "dirty" to burn here.

So - the UK continues to import Ant coal and Natural Gas because their own reserves are a bit hard to get too... and no politician will be seen to break cover and publically admit that "renewables" aren't up to the job just yet. Meanwhile our coal burning generators reach their end of life and our politicians haven't the cahones to build a few nukes on our south coast to be self sufficient - despite the fact France will happily build their nukes just 20 miles away on the other side of the channel and sell us their electrickery.

Politics, power generation and NIMBYS - 3 things that should never be allowed close quarters. I predict a flashover