A Northumberland MP has explained why he campaigned against three coal mines in the North East- but is now backing plans to open the first new mine in decades.
Levelling up Secretary Michael Gove gave the green light for a new mine in Whitehaven in Cumbria after years of disagreement.
Speaking on BBC's Question Time in Bishop Auckland on Thursday, Hexham MP Guy Opperman said he supported the Government's decision - despite the fact he had previously been opposed to mines in the North East.
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In 2019, Mr Opperman called plans to extract 800,000 tonnes of coal from a site at Dewley Hill at Throckley "a climate change disaster" and had previously led the campaign against open cast mines at Halton Lea Gate and Whittonstall.
The Employment Minister added at the time that he did not want to see a new opencast mine "casting a shadow on our vital green lungs". However, speaking this week Mr Opperman explained that the coal extracted from Cumbria would not be used for power generation.
He said: "What we're talking about here is coking coal, which we currently import from Russia. If we decide as a country we need steel to build buildings or for manufacturing, which we clearly do, then we have to have coking coal."
Mr Opperman also said that the 419-page report from the planning inspectorate said the environmental impact would be "neutral" - although host Fiona Bruce pointed out this was only for the extraction of the coal, and did not include the carbon emissions of burning the material.
Mr Opperman replied that he had "tried" to read the full report on his way to the venue.
Coking coal is necessary in the production of steel via a blast furnace. Critics have argued that 85% of the coking coal produced by the Cumbria mine will be exported, increasing its environmental impact.
More environmentally friendly sources of steel, such as recycling or electric arc furnaces, have been suggested but supporters of the mine argue that they cannot produce steel on the level required, and coking coal is the only way to do so. Mr Opperman's fellow panellist, Labour shadow minister Lucy Powell, argued that the Government should be investing in cleaner ways of manufacturing steel rather than backing Britain's first deep coal mine in 30 years.
Elsewhere British Steel and Tata, the UK's main steel producers, have both expressed reservations about using the coal. In a Cumbria County Council report, British Steel said the sulphur content in the Whitehaven coal was "an issue" due to sulphur levels, while Tata - the former owner of Teesside Steelworks - said it is looking at converting its Port Talbot blast furnaces into electric arc furnaces.
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