On Friday 4th March South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC), sent fresh legal submissions to the Planning Inspector, Stephen Normington, about the implications of a recent Court of Appeal judgement about greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel extraction. Cumbria County Council had said that emissions from the USE of the coal (in steel making) must be considered in the Environmental Impact Assessment for the mine, and their subsequent judgement that the mine was “Carbon Neutral” was based only on the very shaky assumption that other coal mines elsewhere in the world would reduce their output once West Cumbria Mining (WCM) started selling their coal.
Expert witnesses for SLACC and Friends of the Earth (FOE) showed that this “substitution” idea was unfounded, especially as there are increasingly effective ways of making steel without using coal at all. In the Public Inquiry WCM’s barrister relied heavily on a High Court case (known as Finch v Surrey County Council) which ruled that the climate busting emissions from the USE of oil that would be extracted from 4 new oil wells in Surrey COULD not be taken into account in deciding the planning application there. The Court of Appeal recently overturned that ruling (while still allowing Surrey CC to approve the oil wells for other reasons). Mr Normington had always said that any change to the “Finch” judgement might need to be considered, and agreed with FOE that all the main “parties” to the Public Inquiry could send in short submissions. The FOE submission can be found here. Cumbria CC declined the offer in order to remain “neutral”. The evidence is clear. The coal is not good enough for steel making, and the latest IPCC report shows that we are correct about the need to radically change our technologies, and our reliance on fossil fuels. Better, safer, and more reliable jobs for Cumbria are possible and essential.