Representation by Anthony Hay
- Date submitted
- 7 August 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Dear Planning Officers, I strongly object to Drax adding carbon capture tech to its wood burning plant. Please do not give planning permission for Drax to expand in this way. My objections are: 1. I don't believe this proposal qualifies as a sustainable development under the National Planning Policy Framework because it reduces the efficiency of the power station rather than increasing it and because it will mean Drax continues to destroy old growth forests. Because a lot of the energy generated will be used in the CCS process Drax will actually export less electricity, which could mean more gas will need to be used in other power stations to make up the difference. This is contrary to the Overarching National Policy Statement for Energy’s commitment to reduce energy from fossil fuels I am extremely concerned about the climate and ecological crisis and the near future of our civilisation. But switching CO2 emissions from Drax to some other power station is not the answer. 2. Drax destroys ecologically valuable forests. Drax is the world's biggest tree burner. In 2021 Drax burned the equivalent of 1.5 times the UK’s entire wood production and in the process produced less than 1% of the UK’s electricity. But the trees Drax burns don't come from the UK, they are imported from places like Estonia and Latvia where they are logging in highly biodiverse forests. Drax cannot be trusted to not cause irreversible loss of old growth forest, thus making the climate and ecological crisis worse. 3. This development will cause irreversible harm of major magnitude to local ecology as described in Drax's own Ecology Report: "Given the scarcity of green-winged orchid within North Yorkshire, including being classified as Near Threatened on the Vascular Plant Red Data List for Great Britain, construction of the Proposed Scheme would give rise to an adverse impact that is of major magnitude, irreversible and considered to be significant at a County scale." -- Drax Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage, Environmental Statement – Volume 1 – Chapter 8 Ecology, Page 46 Please do not allow this planning application to pass. Yours sincerely Anthony Hay