Tynette Deveaux of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Atlantic campaign, reporting to the National Observer, calls the approval to continue running until 2029 for Canada’s only underground coal mine “a sad day for Nova Scotia” and she said it’s accentuated by a new employee of Kameron Coal — former Glace Bay MLA Geoff MacLellan.
In my youth in Glace Bay, in the 1950’s, “Coal was King” and in nearby Sydney, my grandfather was one of thousands working in the steel plant for one of the three daily shifts. The “black around the eye” (and in the lungs) showed the face of a steady job and the cloud of carcinogens that propelled skyward from the coke ovens as the coal was prepared to catalyze the production of steel emitted “the smell of money”.
The Nova Scotia Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration has recently approved the reopening plan of Kameron Coal, in Donkin, a 20 minute drive from Glace Bay. The Donkin coal mine got the industrial green light to continue running until 2029 from the provincial government’s Environment and Climate Change department.
A new report assessing climate risks across Nova Scotia from the provincial Department of Environment and Climate Change, entitled, Weathering What’s Ahead: Climate Change Risk and Nova Scotia’s Well-being notes that “using oil, coal, and natural gas to heat homes, generate electricity, and fuel vehicles” contributes to climate change and will worsen climate impacts. As of now, over half of the electricity generation in Nova Scotia comes from coal. (Logan & Ottenhof, 2022)
The former MLA for Glace Bay, Geoff MacLellan now works for the company, which he vocally supported during his time in government.
Referring to coal from the Donkin mine, he told The Canadian Press in 2017 “we're going to produce it for as long as we can." (Logan & Ottenhof, 2022)
The product of Kameron Coal is metallurgical coal that is converted to coke for steel production. Carbon Clean's Dr James Hall discusses how the steel industry can prepare for net zero and reduce its CO2 emissions with CCUS technology.
The amount of CO2 emissions from steel manufacturing is almost double the amount of steel created: 1.85 tonnes of carbon per 1 tonne of steel. If steel were a nation, it would be the 5th largest producer of carbon emissions in the world!
The future of the steel industry needs to include a plan that utilises carbon capture technology (CCUS) to reduce fossil fuel carbon emissions and cut the carbon footprint of steel. (Cleaning Up The Steel Industry: Reducing CO2 Emissions With CCUS, 2021)
As part of Our Climate, Our Future Nova Scotia’s Climate Change Plan for Clean Growth the Department of Environment and Climate Change has measured how the climate change plan will impact greenhouse gas emissions in Nova Scotia. The projected pathway to 2030 includes policies like phasing out coal-fired electricity generation, having 80 percent of electricity come from renewable sources, reducing our reliance on oil for home heating by at least 20 per cent, and having 30 percent of new vehicle sales be zero-emission vehicles by 2030.
Two serious problems associated with Kameron Coal remain. The majority of emissions caused by the coal mined at the Donkln mine will occur when the coal is used to manufacture steel. This will likely occur at a steel mill outside of Canada. This transfer of the GHG emission problem to the end user is a denial of the responsibility to put the welfare of the planet ahead of short term profit. The process of steelmaking will need to be transformed to reduce the demand for metallurgical coal and consequently reduce the market for Kameron Coal and lead to the abandonment of the operation and the layoff of people. The cycle of foreign owned companies exploiting Nova Scotian workers in sunset industries continues. The transformation of electricity generation and distribution, transportation and agriculture in Nova Scotia will require thousands of skilled workers. Investment now in the training for these careers is the plan that will provide a future that is not connected to an industry that is in decline.
References
Cleaning Up The Steel Industry: Reducing CO2 Emissions with CCUS. (2021, January 28). Carbon Clean. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://www.carbonclean.com/blog/steel-co2-emissions
Logan, C., & Ottenhof, L. (2022, December 2). Kameron Coal hires former N.S. MLA and gets approval to operate Donkin mine until 2029. National Observer. Retrieved December 7, 2022, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/12/02/news/kameron-coal-hires-former-ns-mla-approval-operate-donkin-mine-until-2029
Logan, C., & Ottenhof, L. (2022, December 5). Sea levels in Nova Scotia set to rise by a metre this century. National Observer. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/12/05/news/sea-levels-nova-scotia-rise-metre-century
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