I have missed an L out.......... damn.!!!


Blair called on to renationalise UK Coal UPDATE
AFX


(Updates with more details, background)

LONDON (AFX) - The government should intervene at UK Coal PLC to renationalise it in the same way it did in the rail industry, a Labour MP told Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Bolsover MP Dennis Skinner accused UK Coal, formerly RJB Mining PLC, of being 'neglectful on safety' and running down the few remaining pits in the country.

'I would expect the government to do the same in the energy industry that they did in the railway industry and that is to intervene, get rid of UK Coal and put somebody in there that can be trusted to save the pits and the miners,' he said.

Blair promised to 'look into the point he raises on UK coal', but added that problems in the industry were to be blamed partly on the way the sector was privatised.

'The result of that has been to waste many billions of pounds, quite apart from the loss of jobs in mining communities,' he said.

Up to 200 jobs could be lost at UK Coal's Kellingley colliery after the company abandoned plans to expand what is its second most productive mine, blaming 'unforeseen geological problems'.

The company is seeking about 60 voluntary redundancies to start with.

UK Coal had seen Kellingley as a major opportunity at a time of higher coal prices and wanted to increase annual output to 2 mln tonnes from 1.7 mln.

The kind of intervention called for by Skinner would not be unprecedented. The private sector rail track operator Railtrack PLC was put into administration by the government in 2001 and subsequently re-established as the not-for-profit operator Network Rail.

The decision was taken after the government refused to put any more taxpayers' money into Railtrack.

The government asked the High Court to take the action on Railtrack after it refused to a request for up to 1.7 bln stg in public subsidy to bail out the struggling company.

fp/ak

Too right imho, why import coal when we have 300 years worth unde the ground and people who are unemployed who would bring it out?

Go Blair!!

I read an article some time back about there being millions of tons of coal offshore and there was a company investigating the possibility of drilling down and burning off to produce electricity.

Heard anything about that one?

I know there is the coal offshore.

In fact some mines prior to the Thatcher bash did excavate under the sea.

Too far down to be any wetter than dry land.

Yes, there is loads.

I recall seeing that there are seams of coal on fire underground, long time ago now though. I thiunk it said they would burn for years. that makes it not a new idea, but a good way to utilise without extraction.

Blimey I'm a genius!!