We, the petitioners, urge Warwickshire County Council to reject proposals by Cluff Natural Resources (and the Government,) to begin extracting dangerous Coal Gas under 16 square miles of Warwickshire Countryside between Leamington Spa and Rugby.

Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is a process for exploiting coal that cannot be mined because the seams are too deep, thin or fractured. The process involves using the same sort of drilling technology usually used for fracking to get air/oxygen into the coal seam and then set the seam on FIRE! By controlling the amount of oxygen injected it is then possible to only partially burn the coal and bring the gases produced to the surface where they can be burned to produce energy. A witches brew of toxic and carcinogenic coal tars are produced in the burn cavity. The process is associated with serious groundwater contamination and massive carbon emissions.

UCG has never been used on the scale now envisaged for Warwickshire, and with the exception of a handful of small plants in the Soviet Union, has never got past the testing stage. Previous trials have been associated with explosions and severe groundwater contamination by the toxic and carcinogenic chemicals produced in the process.