The threat from Scottish Coal is growing, just as the front line against new coal looks forward to its one month birthday (complete with picnic). So get down here! Its now or never! The Mainshill Solidarity Camp is extremely grateful for the continuing support from the local community and will be celebrating its one month birthday on Sunday 19th July with a community picnic at 3pm to which everyone is welcome.
Local residents awoke on Monday morning to the news of yet another application for an extension at Poniel [1], a Scottish Coal mine in the Douglas Valley, something that communities had been assured would not happen, and which new planning policy guards against…
Poniel Open Cast Coal site, a few hundred metres away from Mainshill, will be extended by 100,000 tonnes over a six month period. This broken promise is yet another example of the disregard shown to communities and the environment in the pursuit of profit.
Across the valley at Mainshill, environmental devastation and disastrous health impacts will result from the open casting of the 350ha site to extract 1.7million tonnes of coal which will cause 4.98million tonnes [2] of carbon emissions when burnt, excluding the huge emissions released through the extraction process [3].
Rather than responding to the objections made against these plans, Douglas and Angus Estates and its owner Lord Home (currently being investigated for alleged fraud [4]) prefer instead to make unfounded allegations in a recent media statement against the Mainshill Solidarity Camp [5] and continue to deny communities, through sham consultation, of their health, self determination and environmental justice.
At the public hearing attended by several members of the camp who also live in the local community, only two of the 700 people who objected were allowed to speak against the proposal. To prevent the casting aside of these objections and to obstruct the work already begun on site, the occupation of Mainshill Woods through direct action has been undertaken in solidarity with the local community.
Preparatory work for the mine such as the tree felling and bore sample drilling work undertaken by Apex already has been glossed over by the Estate and contravenes 7 conditions of the planning approval regarding studies to ascertain the presence of certain endangered species such as badgers and bats, which the occupiers know to be present on site.
The Estate has misreported the unearthing of an 11KVA underground power cable accusing the Mainshill Solidarity Camp of almost causing a “major disaster”. It was in fact Apex and Scottish Coal who endangered the lives of those on site and the local community by driving heavy machinery over the shallowly buried and unmarked cable. Any heavy machinery could cause death to the occupiers since the site is now comprehensively defended with treehouses and tunnels.
The Estate and Scottish Coal’s persistent profiteering from coal has been defended with reference to carbon capture and storage technology, however even the industry says that CCS is 20 years away. Only a small percentage of emissions can be captured using CCS technology at present [6]. CCS is a smokescreen for mining new coal, and evades the dramatic reduction in consumption integrated with localised renewable solutions and collective community action which is required given current scientific consensus regarding climate change.
The communites which would suffer the environmental injustice and negative health impacts resulting from coal extraction should have control over their local environment. If the planning system continues to side with the coal industry, futher direct action will be the only reasonable response.
ENDS
For more information please see: http://mainshill.noflag.org.uk or phone
the site for interviews on 07806926040
Notes to Editors
[1]
http://www.douglascommunitycouncil.info/news.asp?intent=viewstory&newsid=18504
[2] Carbon combines with oxygen in the atmosphere during combustion,
producing carbon dioxide, with an atomic weight of (12 + 16 x 2 = 44
kg/kmol). The CO2 released to air for each kilogram of incinerated coal is
therefore 2.93kg.
[3] http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19826520.100-capturing-carbon.html
[4]
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/coutts-bank-chairman-lord-home-named-carroll-trust-case-0
[5] The Mainshill Solidarity Camp has been occupying Mainshill Woods since
18/6/09 in order to resist Scottish Coal’s plans to develop a new open
cast coal mine.
[6] CorporateWatch Technofixes Report downloadable at
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=3126