Environment Agency 'bad view' on Pembroke power station

06 Hydref 2010

In response to the Welsh Assembly Government's decision not to agree to Friends of the Earth Cymru's request to call-in the environmental permit application for Pembroke power station, Gordon James, Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, said:

"It's tempting to believe that the Environment Agency is now taking a more rigorous approach to its determination of the environmental permit application for Pembroke power station. But we remain very concerned that their position has not fundamentally changed.

"In the letter that the Agency has written in response to our request for the Welsh Assembly Government to call-in the application, the Agency states that it will assess direct water cooling 'in the light of new information'.

"Enough information about the damaging effects of this cooling system was presented to the Environment Agency by the Countryside Council for Wales when the Agency gave its view in June 2008. Legalities aside, the Agency has impaled itself on an initial, bad view, and now wants to give the impression that it still has room to manoeuvre.

"As its decisions will now be closely scrutinised by the European Commission, we hope it will have the good sense to insist on the power station using technologies that will not cause further harm to Pembrokeshire's important marine environment."

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