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Vestas wind turbine factory occupation - Greenpeace comment

22 Jul 2009

Commenting on the occupation by workers of the Vestas wind turbine factory on the Isle of White, the head of the Greenpeace climate change campaign Robin Oakley said:

"The RBS bankers got £775 million in bonuses for helping bring down the UK economy. By contrast, these men and women who could help Britain build a vibrant new green economy are being snubbed. The Government holds ultimate responsibility for the closure of this factory and the loss of 600 skilled jobs. It is factories like this and engineers like the ones occupying it that Britain desperately needs if ministers are serious about launching a green industrial revolution."

He continued:

"Last week Labour promised Britain would install thousands of wind turbines in the coming years. Are ministers really now saying they'd rather buy those turbines from abroad than make them here in the UK? Letting this factory close is like a football manager saying he's up for the cup then dropping his only goal scorer. It just doesn't make sense."

ENDS

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Tags: wind power, climate change, vestas, press releases

Hiding behind carbon dragons and other government myths

Posted by tracy on 28 April 2009.

Our Communications Director Tamara is next up in the blog relay - a whistle-stop tour of Greenpeace staff here in the UK. Click here to catch up on the other entries.

Having spent the last three years living in China, I and all of my Chinese colleagues became somewhat accustomed to what we referred to as "China bashing" by some of the international media. You know the sort of thing: the over-the-top, almost hysterical cry of "China's eating up all the world's resources!" Since China is now one of the world's largest manufacturing centres, the claim was applied to almost anything - timber, coal, or even the cobalt used to make our cell phone batteries. To a certain degree, therefore, there is a kernel - but not much more - of truth to the claim.

Tags:

forests, renewable energy, wind power, paper, china, timber, blog relay, vestas, consumption

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Government knocks the wind out of renewables

Posted by nathan on 28 April 2009.

Two breaking stories neatly illustrate the flawed logic which still lurks at the heart of UK energy policy. First up is that German energy utility RWE's bid to build a new nuclear plant near Kirksanton in Cumbria will mean dismantling an existing wind farm on the site. While at the other end of the country, 600 workers at the Vestas Blades wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight could be facing redundancy.