http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/01/05/lord-ridley-make-mine-large-one
Lord Ridley, the landed aristocrat and prominent climate denier, will start work this year on two new profitable opencast coal mines close to his Grade I listed stately home and acres of beautiful national park that make up his 8,500-acre estate.
The Ridley-White family has owned the stunning Blagdon Estate in Northumbria since 1700, where they have mined coal and fireclay to amass a considerable fortune while fuelling the Industrial Revolution and British Empire.
The peer's property, held by a family trust, today covers a significant part of the open mines at Shotton and Brenkley Lane, north of Newcastle, which together contain 8.3m tonnes of coal, worth an estimated £607m on the spot market.
Banks Mining, which operates Ridley's mines, has won planning permission to open two further opencast mines, with the Shotton Triangle Extension yielding 300,000 tonnes worth about £22m and Shotton South West providing 250,000 tonnes and £18m by 2017. Had permission not been given last year, the coal would have been 'stranded' and never mined.
Ridley's share of the estimated £13m in additional annual revenue to the main coal mines will come in helpful for upkeep of the family mansion - and it will keep the wolf from the door as Ridley continues to provide pro bono support to Britain's climate denial campaigners.
Heir to the Fortune
"My New Year's Resolution, is to try and emulate Marek's level of chilled out, thoughtfulness and humour towards other forumites and not lose my decorum"