Greenpeace: so last century
A group of Greenpeace protestors have “occupied” Didcot power station in my constituency. You might expect me to applaud people who unfurl a banner saying “Blair’s legacy”, highlighting Blair’s woeful record on the environment. But I don’t. First of all, sit ins, chaining yourself to things etc etc are just so last century. I am sure they can stay there for weeks, as the human rights act will force the Police to supply them with McDonald’s until they get bored. But I also think they have completely missed the point. They normally do - remember Brent Spar, when it turns out sinking it was the best thing to do all along? But for the record - Didcot has an ash reprocessing plant and a biofuel plant, representing millions of pounds of investment in renewable energy. Coal power generation will stop there in less than a decade. The environmental message has got through. Greenpeace is no longer necessary.
Ellee said on November 6th, 2006 at 12:44 pm:
Hi Ed, Just to let you know I have followed this up on my blog today under the heading: “Has Greenpeace had its day?”
ben stewart said on November 6th, 2006 at 6:49 pm:
Ed, very quickly because I’m sure you’re busy…
I’m one of the Greenpeace protesters. A couple of points - firstly the biofuel currently burned in Didcot is Indonesian palm oil, from rainforests. Secondly, the point of our action was to stop CO2 being emitted for a period of time and to highlight that power stations like this waste 2/3 of the energy they generate in the form of waste heat esacping up the cooling towers. It’s called decentralised energy and your party, er, supports it. A quick reading of the press release would have revealed that fact. Thus, even if Didcot ran on carbon-neutral yoghurt it would still be inefficient because it doesn’t operate CHP but instead wastes 60-70% of what it generates.
And as for having had our day, well, I got to ask Blair a question live on ITV from the top of the chimney stack. It was our day.
All the best
Ben Stewart
Ed Vaizey said on November 6th, 2006 at 7:13 pm:
Dear Ben
Thanks for getting in touch. Just think, without this blog, we wouldn’t have had this dialogue, so I am pleased to have posted it! I still don’t agree with you - Didcot power station was built in the 70s, of course it is not as efficient as other forms of power generation. And yes, I support microgeneration and CHP, but these forms of energy production are unlikey to power the country. So really, the only way forward is nuclear power.
Thanks for posting such a polite comment by the way.
Ed
Paul Clennet said on November 15th, 2006 at 2:33 pm:
Dear Mr Vaizey,
I think the expression is - “when in a hole - stop digging.” You need to be much better briefed on energy before commenting on these complex issues. I’m not a member of Greenpeace but they were making a valid statement that we are consuming unsustainable amounts of energy from finite sources and we need much more radical action from Government. As a professional in the energy industry, I’ve seen your party along with Labour & Lib-Dems relying for over a decade more on worthy statements and verbose policy documents than on practical measures. That’s why we still only generate about 4% of our electricity from renewables. I used to build nuclear stations but they have major drawbacks - lifetime cost, carbon footprint, de-commissioning, high-level waste and primarily the finite supply of Uranium. Greenpeace are as essential as elections, i.e. to kick politicians’ backsides.
Regards
Paul Clennett