Kingsnorth decision welcomed

The big news today is that the E.On is shelving plans for a new coal fired power station on the Thames at Kingsnorth.  On its own it can be portrayed as a simple economic decision, but that would be to ignore the vigorous and high profile campaigning that has undoubtedly provided the impetus for this postponement.  We’ve played our part in that campaign and this is an opportunity to say thank you to all those who have supported us.

But don’t relax just yet, there’s a big job to do to turn this postponement into the victory for common sense that would see an end to proposals that provide a fig-leaf of carbon capture and storage (CCS) to massive new coal proposals.  Ayrshire Power and the Scottish Government should be looking carefully at their proposals for Hunterston on the Clyde in the wake of this news.  The priority now should be to get CCS on the right track, with properly funded demonstrations on existing power stations (thus reducing emissions) and backed by legally binding emissions targets. 

And just when it looked like the news from the Thames is entirely positive, along comes this story that is a warm-up for publication of the feasibility study into the construction of a huge airport in the Thames estuary (dubbed Boris Island).  Identifying funding sources for carbon spewing, habitat destroying, wildlife threatening proposals doesn’t make them the right thing to do.  I think E.On may have got this message today, its about time the backers of Boris Island did too.  We'll, no doubt, return to this story.