On June 13, environmental activists hijacked a train carrying coal to Drax power station, Britain's largest electricity generating plant.
The plant, located in the village of Drax near Selby in North Yorkshire, is actually named after the parish and produces 7 percent of Britain's electrical power. It is owned by the Drax Group plc, which sells power and power-related products like fly ash, a byproduct of burning coal which is used to extend cement. The Drax Group made the FTSE 100 Index again on June 23, 2008 - a position which analysts say may remain stable for quite a while as power prices continue to climb.
Disguised in yellow warning jackets as railway workers, the eco-protestors (or eco-terrorists, depending on your political stance) waved red flags to stop the train in approved railway fashion, and then swarmed over and on top of the 20 cars stopped between the villages of Gowdall and Hirst Courteney, on a bridge over the river Aire, at about 8 a.m. BST (British Summer Time).
The protestors, from Climate Camp (a group responsible for a similar Drax siege two years ago), reportedly brought enough food and water to carry them through for several days. While railroad engineers radioed for advice, more protestors arrived and began shoveling the coal onto the track and into the river below. When police arrived about a half hour later, they sealed off the area and closed the crossing to motorists at both ends.
The protestors clipped themselves to both the train and bridge girders in such a way that moving the train would have caused damage, and vowed to remain until the government stopped burning coal. A woman dressed as a canary - a bird used to warn coal miners of methane gas pocket in mines - even donned a large, yellow-paper beak.
Authorities say the train, and the crossing, would remain closed until the protestors left and the tracks were cleared of coal debris - a process that takes several days.
Drax spokespersons argue that Drax is the cleanest coal plant in the country, by volume of generation, having reduced its sulfur dioxide emissions alone from 1.70 in 2002 to .77 in 2007. Sulfur dioxide is the primary cause of acid rain. In 2006, Drax emitted 22.8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, and was cited by the World Wildlife Federation, or WWF, as one of the "dirty thirty" of Europe's power plants, ten of which are in the UK. Drax admits the pollution, but argues that emissions reductions - 3 million tonnes per year at a cost of £180 million pounds ($354 million dollars) - are improving both its environmental image and burning efficiency.
Drax is also reportedly using more renewable biofuels. On May 30, Drax announced the signing of an agreement with Alstom Power, from France, to build a biomass fuel processing plant. The proposed plant could replace as much as 10 percent of the coal Drax is currently burning with items such as nut shells, sunflower husks, grass, wood chips and other biomass products. At a cost of fifty million pounds, the plant would be the world's largest, and would be able to burn 1.5 million tons of organic matter a year.
Another emissions reduction program, announced on June 6, calls for carbon sequestration. This £30 billion-pound proposal (roughly $60 billion dollars) calls for storing carbon dioxide emissions in empty gas fields under the North Sea. The feasibility study by Amec, sponsored by a partnership of Corus, Scottish and Southern Energy, Powerfuel Power Ltd, BP, ConocoPhillips, E.ON UK, Shell and Drax Power Ltd., estimates this carbon sequestration project could reduce carbon emissions from 90 million UK tonnes to just over 30 million tonnes, and is a response by the companies to the Climate Change Bill (cm 7040), which sets targets to cut emissions by 60 percent by 2050. A limit some want to raise to 80 percent, though experts voice the opinion that "it will never happen". This bill is currently before parliament.
The problem with carbon sequestration technology is that - at least in the U.S. - projects run well over budget and the science hasn't been fully worked out. Even on a one-billion-pound research budget, with additional funding from the government, UK experts admit that there are many technical issues unresolved, and the power industry will require reassurance that the costs are manageable. Since energy companies almost never spend money they don't have to, it may be a tough sell even if it works as described without producing more environment-shattering effects.
On June 18, other coal protestors from the newly formed Leave It In the Ground group, occupied a farmhouse on land destined for an open pit coal mine. Barricading themselves inside the abandoned Prospect farmhouse, owned by UK Coal, these 12 protestors put chains around their necks and fastened them to doors to prevent police using force to gain entry.
Residents of Smalley, in Derbyshire, have been protesting the open pit mining plan for half a decade, backed by both local councils and environmental groups. The current group of protestors says it has enough food and water for "long term occupation", so even though permission to mine was given in 2007, the actual extraction is unlikely to take place until the situation is resolved.
Other protestors have already revealed their plans for shutting down Medway's Kingsnorth power station later this summer. They are going to use rafts; actually, an armada of rafts. Apparently bigger is better, when it comes to protesting, and spectacular is even more effective. Hopefully the rafts will be green.
I hate to rain on anyone's parade, and admit to a high level of environmental disgruntlement myself (visualize me screaming at my computer monitor every time I read the news). Even so, I am beginning to get the feeling - shared by Andrew Hitchon - that these extravagant displays are more circus than serious, and reinforce the credibility gap wherein three-fourths of the world doesn't think global warming is real (or doesn't care), and the one-fourth that does can't understand why its warnings aren't taken more seriously.
A woman in a bright-yellow bird suit might be one factor.
Meanwhile, NASA scientist and real environmental activist James Hansen told Congress in his most recent appearance that the world has long passed the danger level for greenhouse gases, adding that non-emissions capturing coal plants in the U.S. should be outlawed after 2025, and worldwide after 2030.
"We're toast if we don't get on a very different path," Said Hansen. "This is the last chance."
A warning that resonates even among global warming skeptics, and Hansen was wearing the traditional dark suit, white shirt and tie.
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