No more subsidies for Drax. Fossil Free North Yorkshire (FFNY) along with other environmental groups have called on Ed Miliband Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero not to agree any extension of subsidies for tree burning power stations at Drax in Selby and Lynemouth in Northumberland.
In a letter to the Secretary of State, who is also MP for Doncaster North, they say they are “becoming increasingly concerned about the UK government’s plans to consider meeting the cost of extending the existing subsidy scheme (to Drax), from the end of 2027 to 2030. We join with the 41 groups from across Europe and the US who are “deeply concerned” about the UK government’s plans to consider extending the subsidy scheme, and who have called on you to scrap plans to continue to pay billions in subsidies to the owners of Drax. These total more than £7b since 2012….”
The environmental campaigners believe that there should be no more subsidies for Drax as the cost to UK bill payers could be anything up to £2.5 billion a year. “This is money that will not be available to support a transition to genuinely renewable wind and solar power, which you are very supportive of. Continuing these subsidies would allow both power stations to keep burning trees and destroying forests at our expense for years to come. …”
Barry White for Fossil Free North Yorkshire added: “Drax is the largest CO2 emitter and last year was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired plant (recently closed). Drax also agreed to pay fine of £25m after it was found to have failed to report accurate data on the type of material it burned at its power station. Talk of introducing carbon capture and storage is no solution to the problem of CO2 emissions. The technology is controversial and the time taken for new trees to grow to replace those cleared for turning into wood pellets and subsequent burning for energy and absorb CO2 does not match the scale at which it is being emitted during burning”.
Barry went on to say: “We call on Ed Miliband to refuse new subsidies for burning trees in our power stations and
put in place a just transition scheme to replace Drax and Lynemouth power stations with sustainable alternatives.”