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Eric Waugh: Why rejection of Antrim mine has hit us very hard in pocket
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
I will not be the most popular man in town if I remind you, as you feed the gas meter yet again or read your electricity bill, that — ‘We told you so!’ But we did, ‘we’ being the team which was pushing for planning permission to develop the proposed coal mine and power station in north Antrim.
For some years I advised the Australian outfit on its public affairs: Irish-Australian actually, if you bear in mind that its principal, at that time, was a native of Donegal.
But a vociferous element among the locals in north Antrim had other ideas. That element did not want the mine and was determined — and presumably remains determined — not to have it. The people concerned used perfectly constitutional means to defeat the proposed project, as they were entitled to do. Most of the rest, skimming the headlines and unwilling to take the time to explore the detail, took little notice. Now they — you, all of us — are about to pay the price.
The price of electricity in these parts is shortly to increase by another cool 30%, perhaps more. The new charges are to be introduced from the beginning of next month. The details are being given this week. So are the details of a matching rise in the price of gas. Barely three months ago gas went up in price by no less than 28%. Heating oil is already 80% dearer than it was a year ago. I need say no more.
When the AuIron Energy project was proposed, its backers used two arguments in its favour. The first was that Northern Ireland had made a monumental strategic error in the 1960s by resolving to base its electricity generation overwhelmingly on imported oil. It should not make the same mistake again, a generation later, by resolving to depend upon imported gas.
The second argument in favour of the mine was price. North Sea gas was a dwindling resource even in the 1990s. Siberian gas imports were already being negotiated for the UK. But this was international trading on the world market, all prices in US dollars. Wild fluctuation was to be expected. A bomb would go off or a dictator would be assassinated or a desert pipeline would be blown; or a diplomatic stand-off would threaten a world crisis, as over Georgia — and up would shoot the oil price, followed by gas; and so it has been.
But north Antrim coal is a local resource, would be priced in sterling, immune to the switchback of foreign exchange, and secure on the spot as a dependable supply in any world crisis. What is the present circumstance? We already depend upon gas — mostly Russian gas — for more than two-thirds of our supplies. South of the border the figure is 90% — though the Republic does have gas fields of its own. (But they will not last for ever and Kinsale is already well past its peak.)
Walter McClay, formerly an executive of Northern Ireland Electricity and subsequently AuIron Energy's project director, pointed out in a letter to this newspaper last week that, should the Russians decide to cut off gas supplies to western Europe, we would face catastrophe because the electricity industry would have to shut down.
But the alternative is present and waiting. There is enough coal in north Antrim to fuel a 600 megawatt power station for 30 years, probably a great deal more. Note well that the cost of the electricity thus generated would be about one-fifth to one-quarter of that being produced now. The site is bought. The fuel is at hand. No grants would be sought from the EU. The major overhead would be the wages bill. But there would be an outside investment in the region of £700m by AuIron and the partner it would engage when the go-ahead was obtained. I no longer have any connection with AuIron Energy.
But I remain appalled at the closed minds which have rubbished their project. Coal-burning technology has moved forward a great deal in the last two decades. The effluent from the plant can be washed clean. The French are working on a project to bury it. The same is true of open-cast mining. Where the deposit is rich, thick and easily accessible (as in north Antrim), only a small portion of ground need be opened at any one time, to be restored — at once — when extraction moves on.
Opponents of the project made much of their visit to the shallow, thin seams in the old-fashioned lignite opencast mines in the Ruhr: but these bear no relation whatsoever to what is planned for north Antrim. I would suggest the opposition show enough confidence in their case to face giving the issue a fair hearing. It did not have it last time. As for the environment, I would ask: how many of them run cars with diesel engines? The lethal particles of stinking, half-burned fuel those vehicles emit are doing far more harm to the lungs and arteries of the citizens of Northern Ireland, in causing cardiac disease and cancers, than any remote, clean-coal power station would.
In the meantime, the rest of us, as we turn down the heat this winter and contemplate our swelling bills, may reflect upon whether they represent a price worth paying.
- Text Size
Is local, (Scottish&Irish) oil not priced in dollars also as part of the international system? Ref., your comment on Antrim coal prices.
Can you return to the subject of fuel price increases to take account of the drop in oil prices of over 40%. Since N.I.E., and the
gas suppliers made their multiple price increases on the back of this, why are they not now announcing dates for the reductions in tariffs?
Posted by john black | 10.10.08, 10:39 GMT
I have worked in Belfast and I have seen the improvement in air quality due to the burning of natural gas in place of coal and oil. Such is the demand for gas, that alternative sources of supply are being developed. Coal bed methane, or coal seam gas as it sometimes called is being produced in the USA and in Australia. It is generally about 98% methane and can be used in place of natural gas with little pretreatment other than odorisation. The methane is adsorbed into the surface of the coal and held there by water pressure. To produce gas, you just drill down into the coal seams and pump out the water. It is present in all kinds of coal from lignite to anthracite in varying amounts, but typically 10 cubic metres per tonne of coal has been reported.
AuIron were hoping to mine 600 million tonnes and so potentially enough gas to supply Belfast for perhaps 50 years could lie in the coal fields of Antrim.
They are just starting to drill for coal seam gas in Wales. Could Ulster be next?
Posted by Colombo | 28.09.08, 17:56 GMT
I am from Northern Ireland and have worked in the coal fields of Queensland, have visited operating and disused coal fields in England, Ireland and Northern Ireland & have also studied the brown coal mines in Poland and Germany.
Yes, in Europe lignite was mined on tectonic scale using outdated methods, and yes anyone from Ballymoney who visited that area would have be awe struck and unsettled at the scale of their operations. Modern mining methods have improved considerable since these mines were designed. QLD and New South Wales are booming, they have to get bus drivers from England theres that many unfilled jobs! House prices are similair to that of a Sydney penthouse. Wages are easily 40k+sterling for a truck driver. I drove past the Auiron Minerva site in QLD that started up as they pulled out of NI. It is in a beautiful area but its hard to notice it.
May I suggest the objectors to NI lignite visit QLD and ask about the positives of open pit mining an bring to a region.
Posted by Tonka | 28.09.08, 00:11 GMT
Being out of the loop a bit, can I just ask if the proposed plan for this mine was supported by the flat earthers / creationists who seem to have taken office in NI recently? Surely as they have scientifically proven the earth is only about 900 years old, coal or lignite cant really exist?
And more seriously, was the plan to 'restore' the completed sections of the mine mentioned above another way of saying 'make huge amounts of money by creating a vast rubbish tip'? I dont quite see how you restore a massive hole in the ground? how about a nice big underground "no fossils here" theme park to show that dinosaurs didn’t exist.
Posted by Brian | 10.09.08, 22:03 GMT
Well, anyone any bright ideas as to where we're going to get our power from now? That's lignite dismissed, wind power is a fallacy (tens of billions of pounds, coaster? Expecting some Zimbabwean style inflation, are we?) and we don't want plutonium poisoning the world.
Looks like it's big jumper in the dark time again, just like all of the last 5000 years in Northern Ireland, apart from the last 60 or so. We're all living proof that sombody survived without electricity. Who needs Julian Simmonds and Corrie invading their living room every night anyway?
Posted by neil | 10.09.08, 18:23 GMT
Rubbish the Lignite would be sold at the high market rate anyway, it would have no impact whatsoever on fuel prices.
Posted by M Spence | 10.09.08, 17:46 GMT
The North Antrim luddites are fooling nobody by claiming that shooting down both the Windfarm and the Lignite mine near Ballymoney were for genuine environmental concerns. As Eric so wisely already pointed out: do they apply this same rabid love of green issues to other aspects of their lives? Presumably only hybrid cars operate in Ballymoney in that case?
As a Ballymoney resident I would welcome the employment opportunities which something like the mine would have brought. The town is in a bad state of decline and could have done with it.
It is a disgrace that these people are able to shoot down projects such as this. They should have been forced through by the government for the greater good.
Posted by Steve | 10.09.08, 17:43 GMT
Presumably the "vociferous element" that is so disparagingly dismissed by Mr. Waugh is the good people of North Antrim and elsewhere who have chosen to point out that the relentless efforts by a faceless corporation to introduce open-cast lignite mining near Ballymoney would blight our countryside, pollute our world and damage our health! Open-cast mines are the cheapest form of mining, but the most environmentally damaging; and lignite is the most highly polluting form of usable coal. A combination of the two would be an environmental catastrophe, and neither Mr. Waugh nor his former employers have demonstrated otherwise. Opposition to such a scheme is not evidence of a "closed mind" - it is evidence that we understand the real threats to our future. It does credit to the people of North Antrim and Northern Ireland that so many have voiced such opposition, in spite of siren-song claims that they might shave a few pounds off future electricity bills.
Posted by John | 10.09.08, 03:22 GMT
Hey, it is the same the world over. Not in my backyard!
Posted by RMS | 09.09.08, 23:48 GMT
The truth about the open cast lignite mine is that it would not only destroy land and air in a beautiful and agriculturally productivearea, but the mining company, whose headquarters are in Australia, has no intentions of the product being used in N. Ireland as it will be exported to Scotland.
Additionally the proposed wind farm would give N. Ireland the most expensive electricity bills as not only would we have to pay the costs for the building of the farm and the station to take the power in (which by the way would be intermittent as the winds are mostly too strong for the turbines to work more than 30% of the time), but after 25 years the turbines would have to be decommissioned and the cost would be in the tens of billions of pounds.
So where is this cheap energy that you are referring to?
Posted by coaster | 09.09.08, 23:17 GMT
This article is completely wrong on several critical issues:
1) The plan was to build a lignite mine, not a coal mine. Lignite is one of the most polluting fuels. The idea that the power station would have been burning 'clean coal' is absurd.
2) The mine would not have been in a remote location and the pollution generated would certainly have been far reaching. Even far outside North Antrim, with its protected coastline and areas of outstanding natural beauty, the effects of the pollution on human health would have been apparent.
3) It was not local objection that lead to the project being scrapped, but withdrawal by the developers since they had no co-development partner to build or run a power station on site (an essential element for power generation).
Such errors would not be acceptable from anyone writing about such an important issues, let alone one who cannot claim ignorance of the situation. It is difficult not to conclude that this was written to mislead.
Posted by Dr John Stewart | 09.09.08, 21:55 GMT
I am from N. Antrim and I can truthfully say it was not for NIMBY reasons that we were so opposed to the lignite power station proposal. It was the pollution, pollution which would have spread to areas other than N. Antrim. Lignite produces more pollutants than coal or peat. If there was coal in North Antrim I would say, "Dig it out" but it isn't coal - it is lignite, the most inefficient, polluting fuel you can find.
Eric Waugh seems to be suggesting that the lignite power station would have been a viable alternative to Russian gas. This was not the case. Not one watt of that power was destined for Northern Ireland. AuIron had the Republic of Ireland in mind as a customer, but had failed to discuss it with them! He also suggests that the proposal failed because of opposition from locals. I happen to know that it was withdrawn by AuIron themselves, because it was a half-baked idea without a partner to operate the power station that failed to answer Planning Service's first question.
Posted by Marie | 09.09.08, 17:06 GMT
Eric has not mentioned how the nimby residents of Portstewart also rejected renewable energy from the wind turbines. It is ok for them to use electricity as long as residents from other areas have to look at huge power stations on their doorstep!
Posted by robbo | 09.09.08, 14:27 GMT
The Skerries wind power project at Portrush was rejected for the same nimbyish reasons. What an ideal site. Something else to think about when you pay your power bill to Putin.
Posted by neil | 09.09.08, 11:17 GMT