Representation by Michelle Hayward
- Date submitted
- 20 August 2022
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Please reject this planning application and the fraud it represents. If it goes ahead, the carbon footprint of DRAX, the UK's largest single carbon emitter and biggest burner of trees, is about to get even bigger thanks to the carbon capture plans of the ridiculous green-washed bioenergy industry. In terms of climate change, it will be a dangerous failure. Dangerous because it relies on a false narrative of 'green' fuel, ignoring the hugely environmentally damaging reliance on wood pellets sourced from old growth forests, thousands of miles away in Canada and the US, with impacts that go far beyond carbon emissions. The new technology involved in bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) has major issues; not least the huge amount of energy it requires (at least 28% of all the energy produced by each unit). This results in a large shortfall in overall energy production from the plant, which will no doubt be made up by traditional fossil fuels and their associated carbon emissions. In addition, BECCS technology is not yet proven to work! The 'scrub' used in BECCS involves and produces a cocktail of chemicals, including amines, nitrosamines and nitramines, all of which are cancer-causing; thereby endangering human health. The development of this project will see further site expansion lasting four years. Four years in which ecosystems, wildlife and local residents will be further disturbed, whilst increased HGV and other traffic will increase the risk of roadkill. This includes such 'protected' species as water voles, otters, Great Crested Newts and many species of threatened birds. This is of course in addition to the huge environmental impacts of logging in other countries and the associated species and ecosystem losses that this power plant relies on and financially supports. Please reject DRAX's plans, and deny them the ability to further hide their absolutely appalling environmental record behind the energy intensive, and as yet unproven carbon capture rhetoric. Let technologies that are truly green achieve our sustainable energy goals. DRAX represents deforestation and high carbon energy generation - everything we should be moving away from in order to meet our net-zero targets.