The search for clean coal

To emphasise my point, let me give a small example of the stupidity of the current wage structure in mining: A truck driver at a mine gets twice as much pay as an environment manager. This indicates what priority the environment has in the scale of thinking within the mining industry. It actually reveals the core of their problems.

But, lest we get too gloomy, I am pleased to read that Australia’s Energy Minister, Gary Gray, has visited and praised the CCS Plant at Otway in Victoria, where CO2 is being successfully stored, and has announced a grant of 50 million dollars to help develop a network of similar facilities.

I note also that American mining giant, Peabody, has now joined the government of China in a similar initiative. Equally encouraging is work of James Cook University in Townsville which is experimenting in using algae to absorb CO2 and converting the residue into marketable fertiliser.

So, we come to the crunch point. Green politicians and environment lobbyists worldwide are becoming increasingly militant, and have long-range plans to crank-up their militancy to a sustainable fever pitch that will last for decades. Their supporters are swamping the social media with virulent anti-coal messages, and the general public is becoming more and more uneasy about the damage that coal could be doing to the environment.

The problem will not go away, and the longer it is not resolved, the more attractive a reformed nuclear power industry begins to look.

We create clean coal or the industry dies.