Drax Group plc, the company that owns and runs Drax coal-fired power
station, today terminated all contracts with its favoured public relations
contractor, Tulchan Communications. Senior Drax executives arrived
unexpectedly at the PR firm’s office in the City of London at 9am,
demanding an emergency meeting with Tulchan founder Andrew Grant.

It soon emerged that Drax management is furious at Tulchan’s handling of the announcement by ‘climate justice’ activists that they plan to
seriously disrupt the power station during the summer. The Camp for
Climate Action, as it has been dubbed, is planning 10 days of ‘workshops, meetings, information-sharing and direct action against some of key sections of the fossil fuel economy.’ Already, critical stories have begun to appear in national and local media outlets, focussing on the negative, climate change-inducing aspects of Drax, rather than the community and environment-friendly image it would prefer to lead with.

Another senior source at Tulchan (who wished to remain anonymous) reacted angrily to the humiliating dressing down and contract termination by what he referred to as the Drax ‘dirty-powered firing squad’. ‘It’s all very well for Drax to blame us for negative publicity triggered by these
eco-types, but what chance do we have when they have statistics like “Drax produces over 20 million tonnes of CO2 a year and is Europe’s biggest emitter of CO2”, and “Coal generates more CO2 per unit of electricity than any other fuel” at their disposal? We warned them not to slash their biofuels programme earlier this year, but as usual they were blinded by the bottom line and were unable to see that this sort of tiny but well-publicised flagship CSR project can divert public attention from a multitude of sins. To be honest, I wash my hands of the lot of them.’

In a bizarre twist to the saga, the Drax executives emerged from Tulchan later on Friday covered from head to foot in coal dust. Whatever the explanation, this extraordinary story is sure set both the PR and energy industry on fire with debate and conjecture.

The Camp for Climate Action’s Jess Turner declined to share any enjoyment she may have been experiencing as a result of the conflict triggered in part by her group. ‘Industry will probably consume itself as the rich pickings grow scarce – maybe this is a prefiguring of that?’ she mused. ‘Our main message is that burning coal has no place in a society that wants to avoid catastrophic climate change. Governments and business are hard-wired to produce maximum economic growth, so are unable to solve the climate crisis. At the risk of sounding melodramatic: enter the people.’

Source: RT Livewire: T: 07926 033176 E:  rt_livewire@riseup.net

See also
Tulchan Communications: www.tulchangroup.com 020 7353 4200
Drax Group plc: www.draxgroup.plc.uk, 01757 618381
The Camp for Climate Action: www.climatecamp.org.uk, 07944 586036
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Subject: Drax Power
From: "Melanie Wedgbury"
Date: Fri, July 14, 2006 4:06 am
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Drax Power has been made aware of an email circulated this morning
referring to its relationship with Tulchan Communications.

Please be aware that this email is a hoax and should be ignored.

Melanie Wedgbury

Head of External Affairs

020 7353 4200