Word: coal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...startling reversal, British Prime Minister John Major rescinded his government's six-day-old order to close 31 coal mines within five months. The closures would have resulted in the loss of jobs for 30,000 miners and staff. Faced with mutiny within his own party and widespread public anger over the callous treatment of coal workers, Major delayed the closing of 10 of the mines until after the first of the year. The fate of the remaining 21 mines awaits the results of a study on the future of coal mining in the U.K., not a cheery prospect...
...COAL HAS LONG HELD A CENTRAL PLACE IN BRITISH life. It powered the 19th century Industrial Revolution, heated homes, generated electricity and even caused the fog in London. In 1913 more than 1 million miners worked in 3,265 pits in Britain. But that era is history. In a stunning move, British Coal announced that it is closing 31 collieries and laying off 30,000 workers. By March 1993, all that will remain of the once powerful and proud industry will be 19 working pits employing fewer than 20,000 miners...
...British Coal argues that it was forced into the cuts because its best customers, the electric-power companies, decided to abandon coal furnaces and convert to gas-operated generators. The electric utilities claim that gas will be cheaper and more environmentally friendly than coal...
...case against the British coal industry as antiquated and disposable is a matter of considerable controversy. Britain has only 10 years of gas reserves, in contrast to 300 years of coal. In the future the nation may have to rely upon foreign gas supplies, which can be both unreliable and more expensive. Supporters of the coal industry argue that the cost of added scrubbers, which would reduce pollutants coming from the old coal-power stations, might be no more than that of building the new gas plants...
their white rum quarrels, and their coal bags...