Concern over coal-fired plant
The new coal-fired power plant would be the first of its kind in more than 30 years
Thursday, 03, Jan 2008 02:07
Controversy has been raised after a council gave its backing for the UK's first new coal-fired power plant in more than 30 years to be built in Kent.
Medway council voted to approve planning permission for the two generating units to be built at at Kingsnorth on the Hoo Peninsula by E.on UK plc.
Robin Cooper, the council's director of regeneration and development, said councillors "carefully took into consideration all the issues before coming to a decision".
Central government will now decide whether final consent should be given for the power station.
Environmental campaigners are lobbying ministers to reject approval for the site, saying the plant would emit huge amounts of carbon emissions.
EU member states have agreed to cut emissions by 20 per cent by 2020; Greenpeace claims if Gordon Brown gives the go-ahead for the plant then he "will surrender on the UK's long term climate change targets".
"Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel on the planet, and even the chancellor admits that so called carbon capture technology may never work," said Greenpeace executive director John Sauven.
"With a decade left before our emissions must peak we just can't take that kind of gamble with the planet, and we certainly can't tell the Chinese and Indians not to build a new generation of coal-fired power stations if we do the same here."
Friends of the Earth energy campaigner Robin Webster said it is "very disappointing" Medway council gave its backing to the coal-fired power plant.
"If built, Kingsnorth power station will undermine the government's commitment to meet European targets for producing 20 per cent of energy from renewables by 2020.
"If it is serious about tackling climate change the government must throw out this proposal and promote investment in clean and green alternatives."
Paul Golby, E.on chief executive, said the proposed station for Kent will be a testing ground for new technology which could contribute to making coal power stations worldwide much cleaner.
The technology, carbon capture, seeks to allow for the storage of carbon in geological formations, such as depleted oil fields beneath the North Sea, rather than carbon being released into the atmosphere.
"The technology is not proven," Mr Golby told the Today programme, "[but] somebody has got to prove it."