Parliament gives green light to polluting power25 August 2011
MPs have backed plans to fast-track major projects like power stations and incinerators - regardless of local people's views.
New National Policy Statements (NPSs) dictating policy on town planning fail to provide clear guidance on climate change for proposed power stations.
The decision will speed up applications for new gas-fired and nuclear power stations creating a dash for gas and locking the UK into decades of radioactive waste.
A significant set-back
Friends of the Earth's Energy Campaigner Simon Bullock said renewable energy and energy-efficiency measures offer the best hope of tackling climate change and stabilising fuel bills in the long run.
the UK can't afford to wrap yet another high-carbon chain around its neck
Simon Bullock, Campaigner, Friends of the Earth
Ministers must look again at the huge volumes of new fossil-fuel power stations being built or already approved.
The Government must urgently overhaul our broken energy system and unleash the potential of the clean, green energy from our sun, wind and waves - putting power back into the hands of people.
Simon Bullock, Campaigner, Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth has argues that the energy NPS fails to take into account:
- Warnings
on the risk of a dash for gas - Recommendations for a fourth carbon target
by reducing emissions to half by 2025 compared with 1990 levels - Government emissions targets
to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050.
An early test
A huge incinerator proposed for Merthyr Tydfil in Wales is likely to be larger than Cardiff's Millennium Stadium It would sit next to the UK's largest opencast coal-mine and a huge landfill site.
The proposal has provoked fierce local opposition.
Watch the Friends of the Earth video about the campaign against the incinerator.
