ROSS CLARK: This polluting green sham has been mocking taxpayers for years - but Drax depriving taxpayers of £639 million last year by gaming the subsidy system takes the biscuit
By ROSS CLARK
UPDATED: 19:53 EDT, 2 August 2023
Are we really surprised that the operators of Drax power station deprived taxpayers of £639million last year by – legally – gaming the subsidy system?
For years, the North Yorkshire power station has been draining our pockets, while we have been led to believe that its woodchip-fired boilers – which burn wood harvested mostly from North American forests – are providing us with a clean, carbon-free source of energy.
Since 2016, we have collectively bankrolled Drax with £1.4billion of subsidies, but what have we got to show for the money? Certainly not clean air –Drax continues to spew out sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot just as it did in its days as Britain's biggest coal-fired station, something belied by the photographs on its website of crystal-clear skies, cutesy graphics on 'sustainable bioenergy' and talk of our 'renewable future'. Neither has Drax given us carbon-free electricity – unless you turn a blind eye to a colossal bureaucratic sleight of hand.
Drax continues to spew out sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot just as it did in its days as Britain's biggest coal-fired station
Drax continues to spew out sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and soot just as it did in its days as Britain's biggest coal-fired station
Preposterously, the Government encouraged Drax, through tax incentives, to convert from burning coal to wood pellets because our net zero tsars regard this as a green way to generate electricity. That is in the face of overwhelming evidence that its chimneys spew out large clouds of CO2. According to a report by Chatham House in 2021, burning wood pellets at Drax is responsible for 13-16million tonnes of CO2 a year – equivalent to that produced by six to seven million petrol cars.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12367009/ROSS-CLARK-polluting-green-sham-mocking-taxpayers-years-Drax-depriving-taxpayers-639-million-year-gaming-subsidy-takes-biscuit.html
