Drax syndrome

Opposition MPs and MSPs are furious with the UK Government because Drax has abandoned a £1 billion government-backed carbon capture scheme.

Drax blamed the government but the firm’s shares have been hammered by falling commodity prices – which have dragged down the price it can charge for electricity – as well as the removal of various green subsidies for burning biomass.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is intended to capture coal emissions and store them underground but there are no commercial fully-operational ones worldwide.

The Drax plant in North Yorkshire is one of Britain’s biggest coal-fired plants but also burns wood pellets.

Forests in the US and Canada are cut down, then they are processed into pellets and then shipped and transported thousands of miles to the Drax plant.

Not very green to rip out trees which absorb CO2 and burn the pellets which emit CO2.

Scotland’s attempts at CCS have failed despite taxpayers’ money being thrown at the problem and more was wasted on research into tidal power, wave power and offshore wind farms.

“Scotland, the Saudi Arabia of renewables” – if you believe that…

Clark Cross

Springfield Road

Linlithgow