Ross Clark
Should we celebrate the end of Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Britain’s last coal-fired power station, whose boilers went cold on Monday, bringing to an end 142 years of coal-fired electricity in Britain? Even as recently as 2012, 39 per cent of our electricity came from coal.
The news of the power station’s demise was, predictably enough, received with great enthusiasm by the climate lobby, who asserted that renewables had displaced this filthy form of generation. According to Lord Deben, the former Chair of the Climate Change Committee, the end of coal power in Britain will inspire the rest of the world to follow suit.
Coal is undoubtably a dirty fuel, producing around twice as much carbon dioxide as gas when used to generate an equivalent amount of electricity – not to mention large quantities of acid rain-causing sulphur dioxide. But before the history of coal in Britain is finally laid to rest, let’s look at the case against its hurried demise.
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