Headlines would suggest a major ground breaking victory for the enviromental movement and the campaign against new coal with the announcement by Eon however the Tipping Point blog suggests the news might not be so significant (see  http://climateshop.wordpress.com). Eon has since confirmed that it remains in the governments competition to build a demonstration carbon capture and storage facility attached to a coal-fired power plant by 2014 and since the winner is unlikely to be announced untill 2011 how can Eons annoucement be taken as a victory?

All Eon are saying is that they a likely to delay commiting cash to build the new plant for the next two or three year so that certainly does not translate as shelving the project, not when they are still seeking the billion pound gift from Ed Miliband to trial the CCS.

Nether-the-less, Eon may have shot themselves in the foot a little by blaming the recession and fall in demand for electricity as a deciding factor. They have completely underminded the argument that we must build new coal fired-power stations in the UK to plug an 'energy gap' and keep the lights on. Clearly, by their own admission, we can simple reduce demand by taking energy saving measures and end capitalisms mindless and blind fixation on constant economic growth.