Open cast coal mining – has it become just too unsustainable?

Open cast coal mining – has it become just too unsustainable?

Despite well publicised good intentions to ‘decarbonise’ the economy and encourage renewable energy, opencast coal mining remains big business in Scotland (or at least it did until recently). Around a third of total UK production was mined in Scotland in 2010[1]. And it remains supported by the Scottish Government, who state on their website “...we support the continued extraction of coal as long as it is undertaken with consideration of local and environmental factors.” However, the collapse of the two largest opencast coal operators has damaged the reputation of an industry which already has a serious image problem. And it has exposed the poor standards of regulation and enforcement that govern this-and worryingly other industries.

When ATH Resources went into administration in December 2012[2], it started to become apparent that all was not well. Then Scottish Resources Group, parent company to the country’s largest operator Scottish Coal, went into administration in April this year. It was clear things were going seriously wrong. However, the true extent of the mess only became apparent when it was revealed that the restoration bonds, required to obtain planning for the mines ,were likely to be inadequate to cover the restoration costs. In fact, it has been estimated that the taxpayer may need to meet a shortfall of up to £100 million[3]

So what went wrong?

Restoration bonds are usually required as part of a planning consent for certain types of development. They should provide a financial guarantee that restoration works will happen if the operator of a development gets into financial difficulties or ceases trading. In other words, exactly the sort of situation we now find ourselves in. However, in the case of these opencast coal mines it seems that the regulators – in this case the local councils – failed to ensure that the bonds would be adequate to cover the restoration costs. That a private developer would seek to minimise cost is always disappointing – but hardly surprising or unusual. What is extremely frustrating is the failure of the regulators. The councils must either have failed to get adequate bonds in place in the first place or else failed to check up on their value while the sites were in operation, and the value of the bonds relative to restoration cost was plummeting. Either way, it is a serious failing on their part. And its not as if they weren’t warned.

RSPB Scotland staff sat through a planning committee meeting in 2007, when East Ayrshire Council waived through a massive extension to the Grievhill opencast coal mine[4]. This extension impacts an internationally important wildlife site, one of the best in Europe and home to rare breeding birds such as hen harrier and golden plover. It is protected by European law as a Natura site. We didn’t think the proposals should go ahead at all in such a sensitive site but East Ayrshire Council and SNH didn’t heed our warnings. They said it would be fine as long as it was monitored and restored properly after the coal had been extracted. We specifically warned officials and councillors of the need to absolutely guarantee that restoration would happen, or else they would be in breach of European law. It now looks as though Grievhill is one of the sites where the restoration bond is grossly inadequate. So much for those reassurances from East Ayrshire Council and SNH. We will have to wait and see whether that case ends up in the courts.

Golden plover

On the face of it, it is hard to think of a less sustainable industry than open cast coal mining. A finite resource is extracted by digging huge holes in the earth, often with devastating direct impacts on communities and wildlife. And that is before considering the climate impacts that result from burning the coal. However, with careful site selection, mitigation and restoration it can be possible to restore some sites to something of reasonable value for wildlife or amenity use.

Over the last 20 years, RSPB Scotland has worked hard alongside the open cast coal operators and local authorities to try and minimise the direct environmental damage their operations cause. Although we have often been in opposition to individual developments, we have worked with some committed and well meaning individuals and we haven’t questioned the integrity of the industry as a whole, trusting that the operators and local authorities would do a professional job to ensure that the legacy left by the industry would be the best it could.

The disgraceful revelations of the last few months are making us consider whether this was the right approach after all. Incredibly, given the precarious financial state of the industry, there are several current planning applications for new opencast coal mines in Scotland. Can we trust the industry to manage and restore these sites? Can the Scottish Government and Local Authorities ensure the bonds will meet all the costs? Recent experience suggests not.