COAL THE WHOLE THING OFF

On Monday 15th thirty campaigners from Coal Action Scotland together with local residents peacefully blockaded the entrance to the Scottish Coal-operated Ravenstruther coal rail terminal in South Lanarkshire.

The action lasted eight hours, resulted in six arrests and prevented the delivery of thousands of tonnes of coal to power stations across Scotland for the whole day. It is estimated that 6,380 tonnes of coal were stopped from being transported from the coal mines to power stations, equivalent to 11,675,400 kg CO2 (11,675.4 tonnes) released into the atmosphere.

The action was aimed at disrupting the operations of Scottish Coal and Scottish Power in the region. The protesters are acting to oppose the five open cast coal mines that deliver coal to the rail terminal and in resistance to the thirteen new open cast coal mines due to open in Scotland.
At clear odds with it's carbon reduction targets the government is currently overseeing the largest expansion in coal extraction in 40 years. In the past 18 months fourteen companies have requested permission to dig nearly 60 million tonnes of coal from 58 new or enlarged opencast mines across the UK and so far the government has not been shy about accepting applications.

The plans affect all of Britain, not just Scotland, and the action follows on from a number of other protests in Derbyshire (see SchNEWS 643) and around the country.

* See http://coalactionedinburgh.wordpress.com

http://coalintheuk.org