[Miss Anne Begg in the Chair] — UK Energy (Coal)

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 9:30 am on 17 March 2009.

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Photo of David Anderson David Anderson Labour, Blaydon 9:30, 17 March 2009

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. That is one key issue to which I shall return. The change that I have seen in my short time as a Member relates to what happened last summer, when petrol prices got out of control across the world. It made people in this country, particularly Ministers, finally realise that what some of us had been saying for many years about coal was true. The Americans have also realised it, and they are going at it in a big way.

I come from an area with one of the world's oldest coalfields, yet it is estimated that we have tapped only 25 per cent. of the north-east's reserves, and that is why the north-east branch of the National Union of Mineworkers has asked the Government to support it in conducting feasibility studies of two drifts near Sunderland and near Amble in Northumberland. They could enable access to 400 million tonnes of proven reserves and create 7,000 jobs. The branch is working alongside One North East and north-east universities such as Durham and Newcastle and saying to us that if we are serious, the reserves are there and we need to go and get them, because they will give us long-term protection.

We need coal. It is a con that we do not burn coal in this country. We talked earlier, before Opposition colleagues arrived, about what happened 25 years ago when we stopped using British coal, but the truth is that we still burn half as much coal—65 million tonnes—as we did 20 years ago. During the past 12 years, we have imported 372 million tonnes of coal. In 1996, coal imports represented only about 26 per cent. of the total, but, by last year, they had gone up to 72 per cent.—a huge leap.