Blog: Climate

Yorkshire says no to new coal

Posted by jamie — 12 February 2009 at 12:16pm - Comments

Ferrybridge coal power station in Yorkshire

The cooling towers of Ferrybridge power station

The decision on a new coal power station at E.ON's Kingsnorth facility in Kent is still expected later this year - the current rumour is around June but as with all government pronouncements you should take that with a very large pinch of salt. Whether it gets the go-ahead or not, it will have ramifications for the other proposed coal developments - including opencast mines - elsewhere in the country.

One of these is at Ferrybridge in west Yorkshire where half of the power station is due to go out of service in 2015. A more immediate threat is the opencast mine planned for the area, which will sit next door to an RSPB nature reserve at Fairburn Ings, and the group Yorkshire Against New Coal (Yanc) is standing in opposition to both plans.

Living in the Age of Stupid

Posted by jamie — 4 February 2009 at 2:47pm - Comments

I have a confession to make - I've never seen The Inconvenient Truth. Or The 11th Hour (If you missed that one,  it was Leo DiCaprio's contribution to the climate change debate). It might sound slightly arrogant, but my sense is they won't tell me anything I don't already know. Plus it's over two years since Al Gore's Powerpoint slides made it into cinemas and with climate science accelerating at a furious rate, it's no doubt already looking a little archaic.

Tar sands investment and 'oil at any cost' threaten BP's future profitability

Posted by jossc — 3 February 2009 at 3:40pm - Comments

Alberta, Canada - contaminated water from tar sands oil production fills a 2 km wide 'tailings' pool

Alberta, Canada - contaminated water from tar sands oil production fills a 2 km wide 'tailings' pool © Greenpeace

Last month our Emerald Paintbrush award presented to BP highlighted how far the company, which previously styled itself as going 'beyond petroleum', has moved back to its traditional profit source at the expense of its alternative energy division, and most likely its long-term profitability.

Investors may have been patting themselves on the back yesterday as BP posted record profits for 2008, but they should be wary - a quick trawl through the figures reveals major flaws in the company's long term investment strategy. Massive profits during the first half of the year (when oil prices reached over $100 per barrel) were undermined by a collapse in the final quarter, when prices fell back to around $40 per barrel.

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