Thirty years on from the miners' strike, will carbon emissions – and environmental taxes – be the final nail in coal's coffin?
There is a vertical drop, at 25mph, down a shaft more than twice the height of the Eiffel Tower, and then a 2.5km ride on a narrow-gauge train 741 metres underground. Then passengers disembark, clamber along a 300m drift – which drops a further 80m – and walk over shattered rock and disused railway sleepers for 3km, before lying face down on an 800m conveyor belt that eventually deposits them at the coalface.
This is commuting to work South Yorkshire-style, at least for the 420 men who work at Hatfield Colliery, an employee-owned mine in Ed Miliband's Doncaster North constituency which played a starring role in the 1996 film Brassed Off.
The scene underground has changed little since the troubled 1990s portrayed in the movie, or the even more bitter 1984 miners' strike, which started 30 years ago. Bags of finely grated non-flammable limestone are suspended from cotton bags attached to the ceilings (they should burst following an explosion). The men's belts house their emergency breathing apparatus – technology developed for tank drivers during the first world war, but made available to the miners in the 1960s.
Tunnels that were more than three metres high when dug in 2006 have succumbed to pressure and are now low enough for most of the men to be forced into crouching positions as they scuttle to work – despite nine-metre bolts drilled into the ceilings and sidewalls. Down there, it seems reasonable to view the encroaching surroundings as some sort of symbol: what remains of Britain's coal mining industry is again being squeezed from all sides.
Gary Craven, a 48-year-old production manager at Hatfield, is the fifth generation of his family to work in the pits after beginning as an apprentice in Barnsley in 1982. Then, he mined the Barnsley seam – the same one now being attacked 20 miles away in Hatfield, such is the size of the asset and the distances covered underground.
"When I started there were 170 pits and it was a job for life," Craven recalls. "There are now three. Don't let the three go. Hatfield employs a lot of local people who rely on the mine. There are a lot of reserves. There is no reason why there won't be more than enough reserves to see me to retirement."
But there is a reason outside Craven's control, which is now uniting the old 1984 rivals from Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. The three remaining British pits – Hatfield, Kellingley in North Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire's Thoresby – are now fighting the green lobby and the Treasury.
Coal is undeniably a dirty fuel. It emits twice as much carbon as gas when burned at power stations, which is why coal is being clobbered by an extra environmental tax – the carbon price floor (CPF) – which is exclusive to the UK and operates as a top-up to the carbon price of the EU emissions trading scheme. It is particularly swingeing for coal.
The industry's trade body, Coalpro, has been desperately lobbying the Treasury and MPs to freeze the charge in this month's budget, arguing that under current CPF plans coal becomes economically unviable, triggering a complete eradication of coal-fired electricity production in the UK by the mid to late 2020s. The group hints that the UK might then have to worry about the lights going out, as coal currently accounts for 40% of UK electricity generation. The alternative, it argues, is importing more gas from overseas.
Ian Parkin, group development director for coal supplier Hargreaves Services, says: "People in the industry just don't see the logic in taxing us out of the market and then importing gas from Europe."
The coal lobby would say that, of course, but even those on the green side of the argument appear reluctant to support the CPF, which is widely thought to be having little effect on total carbon emissions as it simply shifts energy-intensive production to other countries where the charge doesn't exist.
However, some certainly see the potential demise of the remnants of the UK coal industry as a goal worth pursuing.
Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, says: "Under current government policy there is a huge risk of investment in gas generation at the expense of low-carbon technologies, which would bulldoze the UK's climate objectives and lock us into dependence on high-carbon, high-cost fossil fuels. But keeping coal plants open instead is not a solution. Instead, the government should be putting its efforts into securing a massive increase in renewables and energy efficiency."
Will Straw, an associate director for climate change at the thinktank IPPR, adds: "The way to address the potential supply issues in the future is to increase the amount of renewables and nuclear, expand the use of gas power stations in the medium term, increase energy efficiency and have bigger interconnection to Europe." But he admits that Whitehall must put a "rocket booster behind all those policies" to fill the 40% gap left by the end of coal.
"If we don't find a solution for carbon capture and storage then the planet burns," he adds. "There is simply too much fossil fuel in the world. But it is much better to use gas rather than coal while we wait for viable CCS, as gas is less polluting."
Those opposed to coal talk about policies to support regenerating communities such as Hatfield if the mines shut. But the miners are unlikely to thank them for that: many still talk about their trade in almost romantic tones.
Long memories also mean they are unlikely to forget those who lined up against them. On the underground railway one – possibly apocryphal – tale about a strike-breaker gets a rerun. In 2004, after years in the cold, the ostracised miner applied to be readmitted into the miners' club to celebrate his birthday. He was refused. Surely old animosities should be forgotten after 20 years, protested one colleague.
"Twenty years?" scoffed the club chairman. "He broke the 1926 strike. This is his 100th birthday." Reported by guardian.co.uk 9 hours ago.
There is a vertical drop, at 25mph, down a shaft more than twice the height of the Eiffel Tower, and then a 2.5km ride on a narrow-gauge train 741 metres underground. Then passengers disembark, clamber along a 300m drift – which drops a further 80m – and walk over shattered rock and disused railway sleepers for 3km, before lying face down on an 800m conveyor belt that eventually deposits them at the coalface.
This is commuting to work South Yorkshire-style, at least for the 420 men who work at Hatfield Colliery, an employee-owned mine in Ed Miliband's Doncaster North constituency which played a starring role in the 1996 film Brassed Off.
The scene underground has changed little since the troubled 1990s portrayed in the movie, or the even more bitter 1984 miners' strike, which started 30 years ago. Bags of finely grated non-flammable limestone are suspended from cotton bags attached to the ceilings (they should burst following an explosion). The men's belts house their emergency breathing apparatus – technology developed for tank drivers during the first world war, but made available to the miners in the 1960s.
Tunnels that were more than three metres high when dug in 2006 have succumbed to pressure and are now low enough for most of the men to be forced into crouching positions as they scuttle to work – despite nine-metre bolts drilled into the ceilings and sidewalls. Down there, it seems reasonable to view the encroaching surroundings as some sort of symbol: what remains of Britain's coal mining industry is again being squeezed from all sides.
Gary Craven, a 48-year-old production manager at Hatfield, is the fifth generation of his family to work in the pits after beginning as an apprentice in Barnsley in 1982. Then, he mined the Barnsley seam – the same one now being attacked 20 miles away in Hatfield, such is the size of the asset and the distances covered underground.
"When I started there were 170 pits and it was a job for life," Craven recalls. "There are now three. Don't let the three go. Hatfield employs a lot of local people who rely on the mine. There are a lot of reserves. There is no reason why there won't be more than enough reserves to see me to retirement."
But there is a reason outside Craven's control, which is now uniting the old 1984 rivals from Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. The three remaining British pits – Hatfield, Kellingley in North Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire's Thoresby – are now fighting the green lobby and the Treasury.
Coal is undeniably a dirty fuel. It emits twice as much carbon as gas when burned at power stations, which is why coal is being clobbered by an extra environmental tax – the carbon price floor (CPF) – which is exclusive to the UK and operates as a top-up to the carbon price of the EU emissions trading scheme. It is particularly swingeing for coal.
The industry's trade body, Coalpro, has been desperately lobbying the Treasury and MPs to freeze the charge in this month's budget, arguing that under current CPF plans coal becomes economically unviable, triggering a complete eradication of coal-fired electricity production in the UK by the mid to late 2020s. The group hints that the UK might then have to worry about the lights going out, as coal currently accounts for 40% of UK electricity generation. The alternative, it argues, is importing more gas from overseas.
Ian Parkin, group development director for coal supplier Hargreaves Services, says: "People in the industry just don't see the logic in taxing us out of the market and then importing gas from Europe."
The coal lobby would say that, of course, but even those on the green side of the argument appear reluctant to support the CPF, which is widely thought to be having little effect on total carbon emissions as it simply shifts energy-intensive production to other countries where the charge doesn't exist.
However, some certainly see the potential demise of the remnants of the UK coal industry as a goal worth pursuing.
Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, says: "Under current government policy there is a huge risk of investment in gas generation at the expense of low-carbon technologies, which would bulldoze the UK's climate objectives and lock us into dependence on high-carbon, high-cost fossil fuels. But keeping coal plants open instead is not a solution. Instead, the government should be putting its efforts into securing a massive increase in renewables and energy efficiency."
Will Straw, an associate director for climate change at the thinktank IPPR, adds: "The way to address the potential supply issues in the future is to increase the amount of renewables and nuclear, expand the use of gas power stations in the medium term, increase energy efficiency and have bigger interconnection to Europe." But he admits that Whitehall must put a "rocket booster behind all those policies" to fill the 40% gap left by the end of coal.
"If we don't find a solution for carbon capture and storage then the planet burns," he adds. "There is simply too much fossil fuel in the world. But it is much better to use gas rather than coal while we wait for viable CCS, as gas is less polluting."
Those opposed to coal talk about policies to support regenerating communities such as Hatfield if the mines shut. But the miners are unlikely to thank them for that: many still talk about their trade in almost romantic tones.
Long memories also mean they are unlikely to forget those who lined up against them. On the underground railway one – possibly apocryphal – tale about a strike-breaker gets a rerun. In 2004, after years in the cold, the ostracised miner applied to be readmitted into the miners' club to celebrate his birthday. He was refused. Surely old animosities should be forgotten after 20 years, protested one colleague.
"Twenty years?" scoffed the club chairman. "He broke the 1926 strike. This is his 100th birthday." Reported by guardian.co.uk 9 hours ago.