Yorkshire says no to new coal

Posted by jamie - 12 February 2009 at 11:16am - 2 Comments

Ferrybridge coal power station in Yorkshire

The cooling towers of Ferrybridge power station

The decision on a new coal power station at E.ON's Kingsnorth facility in Kent is still expected later this year - the current rumour is around June but as with all government pronouncements you should take that with a very large pinch of salt. Whether it gets the go-ahead or not, it will have ramifications for the other proposed coal developments - including opencast mines - elsewhere in the country.

One of these is at Ferrybridge in west Yorkshire where half of the power station is due to go out of service in 2015. A more immediate threat is the opencast mine planned for the area, which will sit next door to an RSPB nature reserve at Fairburn Ings, and the group Yorkshire Against New Coal (Yanc) is standing in opposition to both plans.

To gauge the public feeling on coal and climate change in general, the good people of Yanc conducted a survey and the results are very interesting. The topline figure is that 71 per cent said that renewable sources of energy should be developed instead of new coal.

In a region where coal is a fundamental part of the industrial and social history, you might think that support for the Yanc campaign from the wider population might be in short supply, but that doesn't appear to be the case. An even larger number, 94 per cent, didn't want energy to be generated at the expense of the climate, and 76 per cent believed that it was the responsibility of everyone - including governments and industry along with individual action - to tackle the problem of reducing emissions.

Yanc have also been contacting the local MPs about the issue, asking for them to oppose new coal developments in favour of clean energy but none of them have so far replied. This includes climate and energy secretary Ed Miliband who is MP for Doncaster North and has previously failed to rule out unfettered coal power stations.

More details about the survey and the campaign are available on Yanc's website.

Article tagged as: climate change, coal, emissions, energy, ferrybridge, kingsnorth, YANC, yorkshire

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Green Peace needs to stop these pirates before they cause irreparable harm. What chance does a deaf Whale have?
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Plus a good prop is more efficient. So it is not even needed.

By Silent Seas - 13 February 2009 at 6:50am

An English Corporation is developing a boat propulsion system that uses steam as a high pressure pump to propel water craft. This "shock wave" technology as it is being touted is going to reap havoc on Marine life, dolphins and whales. Already the acoustical pollution from man made systems is alarming. Sonar, propellers and engine noise already pose alarming risk to the health to marine life, and whales. Years ago in the United States this same technology was developed, explored and then abandoned. The reasoning was simple, to introduce low frequency shock waves into the ocean, where sonic blast travels at such great speed and distance, couped with natural phenomenon can make the damage radius almost unlimited in some circumstances. Even with normal conditions the shear force of such an underwater acoustical blast could destroy the hearing and communication ability of a whale or dolphin and it can also kill. This predated LFA Low frequency array sonar that is now being looked at, and while that is considered now to also be a hazard even that pales in comparison due to the amount of energy released in providing propulsion and the continuous nature of it. Pursuit Dynamics dug up an old abandoned American idea and is selling it as new and progressive. They never bothered to realize that the yanks knew what they were doing when they abandoned it. Far better to use silent props and impellers. The Sonic footprint of the PDX is an acoustical disaster and half cocked engineering at best. Go drop a high pressure steam line or a pneumatic line, like a hose from a compressor into the bay and see what that does to the Whales. It really comes down to common sense would you put your ear next to a high pressure release? Sound is much faster in the water and the acoustical spectrium while very much in the low frequency it spans the dial. Green Peace needs to stop these pirates before they cause irreparable harm. What chance does a deaf Whale have? PSX Sonic shock wave propulsion = dead whales and fish. Plus a good prop is more efficient. So it is not even needed.

By Silent Seas - 13 February 2009 at 6:50am