NO PUBLIC FUNDS FOR THE DRAX POWER STATION IN THE UK!

Drax plc is planning to build the UK’s first new coal power station since 1974 and they could receive hundreds of millions of pounds in public subsidies for doing so. 

Drax’s existing power station already burns more coal than any other plant in the UK and it also burns more wood than any power station in the world, a significant proportion of it sourced from clearcut biodiverse hardwood forests in the southern US..

The government has already awarded £50 million for a feasibility study and the White Rose Plant could get up to £900 million more of taxpayers’ money as an upfront “Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) Commercialisation” grant. Even with CCS, the power station would still be emitting CO2 from its smokestack and would lead to more destructive coal mining around the world.

Yet bizarrely, Drax could lawfully decide to run the power station without capturing much, if any, carbon – and they may well decide to do that because capturing carbon is expensive. For the first three years, they could run it on 100% coal without any carbon capture at all. After that, they may capture 50% carbon from coal – or capture nothing and burn 50% wood with the coal (producing huge carbon emissions when cutting down forests and burning wood).

Please call on the Secretary of State to give no further public subsidies to the White Rose coal power station. The government needs to know that the public does not want their money to be given to private companies for ‘dirty energy’ projects.