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THE quest began in County Durham in 1912. Now the search for a holy grail of British industry, a way to harness a virtually inexhaustible source of energy safely and cleanly without reliance on Johnny Foreigner, is being backed by the North-East's senior churchman.

The Bishop of Durham believes a proven way of making gas underground from our huge amount of unmined coal is not being taken seriously by the Government. Underground coal gasification (UCG) could transform the region's economy if hopes that will be expressed in London next month at an international conference on the technology are eventually fulfilled. By drilling unobtrusive wells into seams, including those under the North Sea, and injecting an oxygen mixture, UCG converts coal into gas for heating, power generation or to make hydrogen, synthetic fuel or diesel. Carbon dioxide from the burning process is sealed underground.

A petition urges Gordon Brown to support this "source of clean energy with minimal greenhouse gas emissions".

The chemistry Nobel laureate, Sir William Ramsay, had to end his pioneering UCG when war came in 1914. That Durham initiative is now being renewed worldwide, including major trials in Australia and Spain and new moves in the UK, including Yorkshire.

Dr Tom Wright holds an office with a tradition of empathy with the men of the Durham coalfield. Their jobs are long gone. But the rising generation would benefit if this new, humane way of exploiting coal were to succeed mightily.

One of the bishop's predecessors seemed unappreciative of pitmen and he narrowly escaped a ducking in the Wear. Dr Wright will have struck a note more popular in former pit villages when he ventured that political will to invest in UCG was lacking.

Many in the North-East, said the mitred liberal, ask themselves if this really is a "Labour" Government. Ouch.

1:05pm Friday 18th January 2008

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