March 2008

Business secretary John Hutton's plans to see a new coal-fired power station under construction this summer suffered a significant setback after E.ON, the company behind the proposed plant at Kingsnorth in Kent, asked him to delay the decision on whether the plant should be built.

Until now Hutton's Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Dberr) and E.ON had both been pushing for a decision to be made by 'end May 2008 at latest'. According to documents obtained by Greenpeace under the FoI Act, E.ON's plans were so advanced that contractors had already been secured to commence building work 'from summer 2008 on current tenders'.

Energy minister John Hutton has been caught trying to sabotage the EU renewable energy targets again. A minister from Hutton's department has been working in Brussels to try and redefine what constitutes 'renewable energy.' After last year's fiasco when Hutton’s department were seen trying to wreck EU renewable targets altogether, now the business minister Lady Vadera has been filmed trying to water them down at an EU energy council meeting.

Arctic Sunrise this week became the latest ship in the Greenpeace fleet to carry its own webcam. The webcam updates every minute, so now you can follow the ship's progress almost in real-time, 24 hours a day. Thanks are due to radio operator Thom and external systems expert Wout for making this possible.

The image above was taken as the ship headed into the French port of Cherbourg for a routine maintenance check after the recent successful action at Caen, where the crew successfully prevented a shipment of Amazon timber, acquired from companies linked to illegal logging activities, from entering the EU.

Watch the webcam here. And in case you're confused, that's the stern which it's pointing at - the big 'H' painted on the deck is to show helicopters where to land!

There's very much a nautical theme in this week's selection of cool green stuff:

• Beware, Japan, of Whalezilla who threatens to devour your cities unless the few people who actually are eating whale meat cease and desist.
• A series of stunning posters from Sharkproject reminds us that we are more of a danger to sharks than they are to us.
• 'Troubled' singer Amy Winehouse will be performing in a Rotterdam club powered by the movers and shakers on the dancefloor. (What do you mean, 'that's not nautical'? Rotterdam's a port, isn't it?)
• It's not quite swimming with dolphins, but Dolphin Olympics 2 is the next best thing. Do a triple back flip and I'll be impressed.

This week the Rainbow Warrior marked the start of a six week 'Target Climate Change' tour of New Zealand with an action against the Hellenic Sea, a 60,000 tonne bulk carrier owned by coal exporter Solid Energy. While it trades on NZ's clean green credentials the government is making millions of dollars from Solid Energy peddling coal on the world market - quite literally stoking the fires of climate change.

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Flashmob at Heathrow's Terminal 5 this morning

This morning saw the opening of Heathrow's new Terminal 5 to the public. Unfortunately for the aviation industry and government - who wanted this to be a chance to promote their case for airport expansion - a large section of that public is vehemently opposed to unsustainable aviation growth, and not afraid to show it.

So at exactly 11am this morning, hundreds of people stripped down to reveal identical "Stop Airport Expansion T-shirts", and to highlight the problems caused by airport expansion and unsustainable aviation growth. Pictures of the flashmob are coming in to our Moblog thick and fast. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see video footage of the event.

The government says the decision on building new nuclear reactors will be entirely up to the market and utility companies will have to pay their "full share" of decommissioning and waste management costs, but Gordon Brown is going to have to cook the books like a cordon bleu chef he if wants to attract new investment.

While Brown teams up with French president Nicholas Sarkozy at Emirates stadium today to push through his dream of a new nuclear era, a government advisor is publishing a new cost analysis that suggests energy companies cannot be charged a fully commercial price for waste disposal without "killing the prospect" of a new generation of nuclear reactors.

This week, Gordon Brown and the French President Nicholas Sarkozy, will sign up to an entente atomique and herald in a new era of cross channel cooperation.

The pact will be announced later this week at the "Arsenal summit" held at the Emirates stadium, the nominal home of French exiles and sportsmen alike, where Brown will open the proverbial front door to French utility Electricity de France (EDF), and its burgeoning workforce, to come build and operate any new nuclear power stations here in the UK.