VIDEO: Why we shut Centrica's office

Posted by petespeller - 30 April 2012 at 5:12pm - Comments

Today 50 Greenpeace activists locked themselves to the doors of the headquarters of British Gas owner Centrica, used the world's biggest energy bill to block the road leading to the car park and occupied an office inside.

Centrica has invested the least in renewable energy sources of the big six utilities while making the biggest profits from customers. Its terrible record of energy investment is keeping hard-pressed households and businesses hooked on burning expensive, imported gas. Yet the energy giant wants us to become even more dependent on gas, at the expense of renewable energy.

Most experts expect the price of gas to rise, while the cost of energy from clean sources such as wind will continue to fall. If Centrica puts its profits into expanding renewable energy and increasing energy efficiency in our homes and offices, it can end the price hikes and cut CO2 emissions.

Tell Centrica's CEO Sam Laidlaw it's time to end the energy rip-off; get off expensive, imported gas and invest in clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Article tagged as: british gas, centrica, climate change, gas, renewable energy, wind

Comments Commenting is now closed

Why? You have disrupted one of the counties biggest employers, for what! Nothing. They try hard to supply gas at reasonable cat, but everyone criticises them, do you complain about the price of a tin of baked beans, or how much you're phone provider is charging? No! You keep picking on the same companies are investing in jobs and people.

Try getting a job, and stop being hypocritical, employing 'professional, cash per hour activists' and boasting very dubious environmentally friendly credentials (web hosting, printing etc!) and concentrate on helping people reduce their power needs, I.e. turning lights and heating off and stp wasting fuel... Easy if you try. Maybe not as popular as you want be seen, but truthfull.

I admire your aims, but am appalled by your methods

By Johnny average - 30 April 2012 at 10:49pm

I have read the blogs on this issue and will comment to some of the most interesting points. We need to act now to combat climate change, one of the most important issues faced by our society. Use of fossil fuels is unsustainable and continued use makes no real sense and is only stupid. So any challenge to our continued increased use is welcome, Greenpeace would not have taken this action without thorough and detailed research and it was interesting that their employees were quick to defend their company blindly, more than just a wage slave?

I was one of the activist that took part and am certaintly not paid "cash per hour", I am a volunteer and proud of the fact that I took part as an individual against this company facititated by Greenpeace. The important thing is we need to act now, to change the way we think and realise that we are sharing this planet and have no given right to exploit and destroy it.

By spankcolin - 1 May 2012 at 12:21pm

3 people agree

Well done again, Greenpeace. This was a fantastic action on every measure: infallibly researched, impeccably organised, and courageously carried out.

Until next time!

By annacharlotte - 1 May 2012 at 2:06pm

1 person agrees

As a long term Greenpeace supporter I too had my doubts
about this campaign but what I think is the key issue here is not the campaign
but that Greenpeace has not explained it very well. Centrica buys and sells gas. We know that.
It contracts to buy gas from producers at a given price. One of the producers is BG – what another of
the comments called British Gas, but British Gas has not existed since Thatcher
privatised the industry. Centrica is
a major player - it has getting on for 40% of the UK gas market and 25%
of the power market. That includes
industry as well as the domestic market, so the price it pays for gas DOES have
an impact on the market and affects the spot price of gas and normally sends it
up. Centrica often contracts to buy gas
in the winter but in the same way that Tesco buys land to build supermarkets on
but does not immediately build a supermarket (land grabbing), Centrica does not
immediately sell this gas but holds on to it to sell at a later date. It buys at wholesale and sells at retail –
and retail prices are affected by the spot price – which is driven by the
contracted price for the sale of gas. We
have a vicious circle here introduced by the market economy. However when the spot price goes down such as
when we have a mild winter, what we as the consumer pay for gas does not go
down immediately and Centrica recently have been very bad at reducing the
retail price of gas, which is why Ofgen had a go at them.

Regarding gas and climate change: at the moment the climate
effect of fossil fuels, including gas, is not factored into the price we
pay. If that were included in, then the
price of fossil fuels would be much higher and as several commentators have
already said, we should expect to pay for the climate effect of fossil fuels
and accept the higher price that would entail.
As the majority of domestic gas usage is for heating then there is a
very strong argument for energy reduction on the home front and all the energy
companies are investing in this to some degree but again not enough. It also requires the consumer to think about
what they are using and use less.

As for investing in renewables then all the big
six are at fault. None of them are
investing in renewables like they should be doing and that again is market
driven. Shareholders want bigger
dividends and are not prepared to allow companies to invest properly in
research and development hence, although we do live on a windy island and are
surrounded by sea which we could use for offshore wind or wavepower, the short
termism of the market – profit now and sod the future – means that investment
in ways to store wind generated electricity is not being carried out. Centrica is no better or worse than any of
the other big six, it just happens to be the tallest poppy, so all you Centrica
employees who got sent home from work yesterday, don’t feel hard done by. I
hope you enjoyed the sun and be grateful the rain held off.

By Cottonsocks - 1 May 2012 at 3:35pm

3 people agree

There are lots of virulant comments on this site, and the assumption that a fair few of them come from Centrica's employees seems quite likely - I wonder if management asked them to do so, or if someone sent an email round their all staff list - time will tell, as these things inevitably leak out.

As an issue this is clearer to me, than the above commentor. The fossil fuel industry, including the gas lobby, but also oil and coal, has a huge baleful influence over government policy. The gas companies, and Centrica especially, may try and portrat themselves as the good guys, but they are doing more than most to keep us all hooked on fossil fuels which are destroying my childrens future.

British gas / Centrica need to stop investing in gas, to stop increasing their profits on the back of rising gas prices, to invest more in renewables and energy efficieny, to help us all move away from relying on imported gas and to reivent themselves as energy service providers - not energy consumption supplies. i.e. I pay them to keep my house warm, not per unit of ful I buy.

Finally a word to those Centrica employees who have kids too, can you not imagine a world where the company you work for isn't wrecking the climate, and perhaps when you do stop hurling quite so much abuse at the few people who are trying to alert the rest of us to what your senior management is up to?

By Alice Morgan - 2 May 2012 at 8:24am

I like peanuts:D

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