VICTORY FOR CAMPAIGNERS AS KINGSNORTH IS DELAYED!

Protect Kent are delighted at the announcement from E.ON last night, that plans for Britain’s first new coal-fired power station for 30 years, at Kingsnorth, near Hoo, are to be delayed. Protect Kent greet this decision as a victory, as although Kingsnorth was to be the first new plant to be fitted with Carbon Capture Storage (CCS) technology, this technology is still unproven.  Going ahead with the new plant could have locked the UK into many more years of high carbon emissions.

Protect Kent is leading the way on raising awareness of Climate Change and the effects on Kent, in the run up to the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen in December.  If the decision is made at the conference later this year to cut emissions, the price of permits to emit carbon could greatly increase.  

We have strongly opposed plans to build a new coal fired power station at Kingsnorth from the start, as we firmly believe the Government should be focussing their attention on energy efficiency measures as well as on less damaging forms of generation.

Today is a great victory for Protect Kent as E.ON has accepted it is not currently economic to build new plants and therefore increase carbon emissions from new coal in Kent. Although E.ON claims their decision is because of the downturn in the economy, it is clearly an indication of how their image and business has been hurt by the concerted campaign by the wide range of groups involved. 

Chairman of Protect Kent, Richard Knox-Johnston said: “This news comes as a victory for Protect Kent as we have continually campaigned against the plans for a new coal fired plant at Kingsnorth.  Without effective and proven carbon capture, there must be no new coal fired generation.  This decision shows that even without the as-yet unknown additional costs of carbon capture, new coal is uneconomic as well as damaging to the environment.” 

The announcement came last night while Protect Kent Deputy Director, Sean Furey, was giving a presentation on CCS to a public meeting in Rochester on “Kingsnorth – the Great Debate”, organised by KCAM (Kingsnorth Climate Action Medway) and the World Development Movement. 

He said: “It was a great meeting and it ended with a bombshell – E.ON had announced shelving their plans. Everyone in the room was stunned. We had won!”