"Local politicians said the facility, the country’s first new coal mine in decades, would create hundreds of jobs."

"The British government approved on Wednesday the country’s first coal mine in decades, a project promoted as a source of new jobs but which has been criticized as a reversal of efforts to control climate change.

The mine, near Whitehaven on the coast of northwest England, would supply coal for the steel industry in Britain and abroad.

The long-delayed project had been caught up for years in competing pressures on successive Conservative Party-led British governments. The current prime minister, Rishi Sunak, recently spoke at the COP27 climate conference about the need to invest in renewable energy, yet he is also pushing to create jobs in areas of northern England that have elected Conservatives in hopes of bringing economic growth."

Stanley Reed reports for the New York Times December 8, 2022. [2]