FoE press release on electricity pylons

Commenting on the launch of the Government's competition to design the next generation of electricity pylons, FoE's Director of Policy & Campaigns, Craig Bennett said:-
"We meed to radically overhaul the way we generate and use electricity over the next 20 years to tackle climate change so updating the design of the pylons which carry it couldn't be more timely. Developing green energy sources like off-shore windfarms will generate tens of thousands of new jobs, but we'll also need huge investment in the National Grid to connect remote turbines to the places where energy is used. Power cables should be buried underground to minimise the impact on the most environmentally sensitive areas, but some new overhead pylons will inevitably be needed. To keep down the number of new pylons, the Government must also encourage people to generate their own green energy through local projects like solar panels and wind turbines, and safeguard the funds to make this possible."