For all the ministerial talk in the last few years on cutting down on fossil fuels and bolstering “energy security“, new BEIS data released today shows just how much hot air that’s turned out to be. According to these figures, Russian imported coal has skyrocketed from 18% to 35% of the UK’s total coal use in the last two years. This is a direct consequence of the government’s refusal to replace domestic short-term surface coal mines back in 2020. The last English and Scottish coal mines were closed last year…

If Britain wants to make steel – and it is strategically important that we do – until we are producing abundant industrial hydrogen there is no viable alternative to coal. The trend in supply was obvious to anyone paying attention at the time – in fact, Guido published an article (Does Robert Jenrick work for… Vladimir Putin?) in 2020 predicting exactly how this would turn out. Even as the UK’s overall coal consumption has obviously fallen in favour of renewables, the demand hasn’t been completely wiped out. We still need around 7 million tonnes a year, 35% of which is now met by Russian imports rather than the UK’s own surface coal. So much for energy independence…