Monbiot.com |
| Posted: 11 Dec 2007 01:36 AM CST The climate talks are a stitch-up, as no one is talking about supply |
Welsh Green Wash - Rhodri Morgan Shame as Welsh assembly give go ahead for the biggest blot on the landscape in modern times. How could they?
"The pit at Ffos-y-fran received planning permission after two ministers in the Westminster government jumped up and down on Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister in Wales. Stephen Timms at the department of trade and industry listed the benefits of the scheme and demanded that the application “hodriis resolved with the minimum of further delay” His successor, Mike O’Brien, warned of dire consequences if the pit was not granted permission. The coal extracted from Ffos-y-fran alone will produce 29.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide: equivalent, according to the latest figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to the sustainable emissions of 55m people for one year.
Last year British planning authorities considered twelve new applications for opencast coal mines. They approved all but two of them. Two weeks ago Hazel Blears, the secretary of state in charge of planning, overruled Northumberland County Council to grant permission for an opencast mine at Shotton, on the grounds that the scheme (which will produce 9.3m tonnes of CO2(6)) is “environmentally acceptable”
