A few months ago, I wrote that the UK could be facing a new coal rush; Medway Council was considering an application to build the UK’s first new coal-fired power plant in over 30 years.
The story had a huge response, with over 13,000 of you writing to Medway Council to ask them to turn down the application (thank you!).
This morning, a team from Greenpeace HQ hand delivered a huge batch of your postcards to Medway Council, adding a giant, coal-filled, perspex postcard of our own to the thousands of messages from people in Kent and around the country.
We wanted to show Medway Council the huge public call to say no to new coal, a fuel that's just not fit for purpose in the 21st Century. So the team was pleased to be greeted by Robin Cooper (right), the council’s director of regeneration and development, who promised to pass the postcards on to all those responsible for making the decision.
Medway may be a local council, but their decision - due next month - will help to inform our national energy direction. If the council approves E.ON's proposed new plant, they'll be approving a plant that emits more carbon dioxide than 24 of the world’s lowest emitting countries combined. They'll also be approving another 50 years of polluting and inefficient energy generation, using a system which allows two thirds of energy to be wasted. And they'll be setting a precedent for the other new plants to also be approved and built around the country.
E.ON - the company that talks green but walks a decidedly murky black - has just submitted their final documents to the council, so we wanted to make sure we put the other side of the story in return: that E.ON's plant would use the worst possible fuel (coal) in the worst possible way (wasting two thirds of the fuel's energy potential), and that the real energy solution is decentralised energy, based on efficiency, renewables and combined heat and power. We even gave them some DVDs of our new film, The Convenient Solution, so they could find out more...
Thanks to all those who have helped get the message out to Medway Council so far. They really do seem to be taking our points seriously. Between your letters, our meetings with the council and the attention it's been getting in the press (here and here say), we're hopeful, but by no means confident yet. If you haven't written, it's not too late to have your say; you can add your voice to 13,000 others here.