New Coal Power Station for Notts?
Disillusioned kid | 14.03.2008 16:36 | Climate Chaos | Ecology
According to an article in local rag The Evening Post, the site of a former power station at High Marnham is being considered as the location for a new coal fired power station.
In an article on Tuesday 11 March (
http://tinyurl.com/2cob6o), the Post reported, "High Marnham Power Station, near Retford, could be set to reopen after the Government announced yesterday that more fossil fuels must be burned."
High Marnham had been the oldest power station in the county and employed more than 100 people, but it closed in 2003. The Post's suggestion that it is to be "reopened" seem unlikely given that most of the facility was subsequently demolished, with only a few cooling towers remaining. Instead it seems safe to assume that any proposals are focused on reusing the site.
The possibility arises following a speech given by John Hutton MP (the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform) at the neo-liberal Adam Smith Institute on Monday ( http://tinyurl.com/2z6txo).
Hutton claimed that new coal fired power stations would not undermine "the UK’s leadership position on climate change" and asserted that "we are taking a global lead on clean coal power generation."
The role of High Marnham in all this is unclear, but the Post claims that "energy company E.on is considering building a power station" and quotes a spokesman who states simply, "We are considering our options but certainly no decisions have been made yet."
It is unlikely that if plans are moved ahead for a new power plant they will be implemented without challenge. Plans to build the first new coal fired power station in the UK in over thirty years in Kingsnorth, Kent have generated massive opposition and been the target of a number of actions by Greenpeace and others ( http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/tags/kingsnorth).
Nottinghamshire already has an active movement, mobilising against the threat of climate change. A week of events around Easter last year culminated in 11 activists walking into the power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar just outside Nottingham and locking on in an attempt to shut it down ( http://www.eastsideclimateaction.org.uk/).
In February a meeting was held at the Sumac Centre, specifically addressing the social and environmental impacts of coal, with a focus on indigenous resistance to its extraction ( http://tinyurl.com/2qppej).
While reaction amongst the local activist community has so far been muted, perhaps reflecting a limited awareness, Nigel Lee, of Nottingham Friends of the Earth, told the Post: "We are quite happy for them to experiment in producing the technology needed for clean coal but we're a long way away from it and they should not give the go ahead for clean coal power stations."
http://tinyurl.com/2cob6o), the Post reported, "High Marnham Power Station, near Retford, could be set to reopen after the Government announced yesterday that more fossil fuels must be burned." High Marnham had been the oldest power station in the county and employed more than 100 people, but it closed in 2003. The Post's suggestion that it is to be "reopened" seem unlikely given that most of the facility was subsequently demolished, with only a few cooling towers remaining. Instead it seems safe to assume that any proposals are focused on reusing the site.
The possibility arises following a speech given by John Hutton MP (the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform) at the neo-liberal Adam Smith Institute on Monday (
http://tinyurl.com/2z6txo). Hutton claimed that new coal fired power stations would not undermine "the UK’s leadership position on climate change" and asserted that "we are taking a global lead on clean coal power generation."
The role of High Marnham in all this is unclear, but the Post claims that "energy company E.on is considering building a power station" and quotes a spokesman who states simply, "We are considering our options but certainly no decisions have been made yet."
It is unlikely that if plans are moved ahead for a new power plant they will be implemented without challenge. Plans to build the first new coal fired power station in the UK in over thirty years in Kingsnorth, Kent have generated massive opposition and been the target of a number of actions by Greenpeace and others (
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/tags/kingsnorth). Nottinghamshire already has an active movement, mobilising against the threat of climate change. A week of events around Easter last year culminated in 11 activists walking into the power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar just outside Nottingham and locking on in an attempt to shut it down (
http://www.eastsideclimateaction.org.uk/). In February a meeting was held at the Sumac Centre, specifically addressing the social and environmental impacts of coal, with a focus on indigenous resistance to its extraction (
http://tinyurl.com/2qppej). While reaction amongst the local activist community has so far been muted, perhaps reflecting a limited awareness, Nigel Lee, of Nottingham Friends of the Earth, told the Post: "We are quite happy for them to experiment in producing the technology needed for clean coal but we're a long way away from it and they should not give the go ahead for clean coal power stations."
Disillusioned kid
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Yes it is on the table
17.03.2008 14:04
E-On, owners of Radcliffe on Soar, who are trying to build the UK's first new coalfired power station at Kingsnorth, the Site of this year's climate camp are talking about a New Station at High Marnham.
Note this doesn't mean re-opening the old station, that will be completely demolished and a new station built, that they claim will be carbon capture ready. This doesn't mean anything. As a technology Carbon Capture and Storage, is an unknown, whilst theoretically possible it hasn't been proved as working in practice. However the most important thing is that if it does work it will not be comercially available for the next 20 years, but if we wish to stop catastrophic climate change we need to make cuts of 90% by 2050 with the most drastic cuts starting this decade, so the technology will be too late.
The best way to stop them building High Marnham is to stop Kingsnorth being built. Kingsnorth is the line in the sand, beyond which we can not pass. To stop Knigsnorth been built, get invovled in this years climate camp, then if they still try and build it we need to disrupt work every day until the project can't go ahead.
1 of the Radcliffe 11
Homepage:
http://www.climatecamp.org.uk