press releases

Responding to today's first reading of the Electricity (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill - which will enable government to increase their stake in British Energy and to make unlimited funds available to the company - Greenpeace Energy Campaigner Jim Footner said, 

Three Greenpeace volunteers have been given a conditional discharge at Hull Crown Court. The three were also ordered to pay compensation each for their part in an action to close Sheffield incinerator after it was identified as the worst incinerator in England, breaking its legal pollution limits 156 times in two years.

Greenpeace and Ecotricity today announced that they were opening a new front against the British Government's support for ailing nuclear generator British Energy and taking its legal battle on to the European Court of Justice. They were earlier granted permission to judicially review the £50 million rescue aid from the Government to British Energy. They are now withdrawing from this case in order to be able to mount a full challenge in Europe, including seeking an annulment of the Commission's approval of the rescue aid.

The lack of public consultation surrounding UK Government participation in the Bush Administration's 'Son of Star Wars' missile defence system is yet more evidence that Blair is nothing more than Bush's puppet, Greenpeace claims today.

The UK Government must impose a moratorium on the discharges of the radioactive chemical Technetium-99 (Tc-99) from Sellafield now, and not leave us to the mercy of British Nuclear Fuels' (BNFL) research programme.

The UK Government's decision (1) yesterday to consult on proposals to consider whether a moratorium on the discharge of Tc-99 from the Sellafield site is feasible whilst research on abatement technology is carried out, is too little, too late, according to Greenpeace.

NGO coalition tells Government 'don't waste this chance to protect human health from chemical assault'

The British Government is being urged to seize an oil tanker dubbed 'Prestige 2' if, as expected, it enters British waters. The Byzantio left Estonia last week carrying 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil - the same cargo as the sunken tanker. Like the Prestige, it is a 26 year old single-hulled ship under charter by the Russian-owned trading company Crown Resources, sailing beneath a flag of convenience. It is expected to pass through the English channel as early as tomorrow.

Three Greenpeace volunteers were today (2nd December 2002) acquitted of criminal damage for painting the words 'toxic crime' on the chimney of Sheffield incinerator. The jury convicted the three of a second charge of criminal damage to a door at the base of the chimney. The verdicts followed a direction to the jury from the judge Mr Justice Bentley, which deprived the volunteers of their defence. The defendants are considering appealing against the judges' summing up.

The Government's public debate on Genetically Modified (GM) crops staggered on today, with the announcement of those scientists chosen to form the Science Review Panel, a select body of experts charged with overseeing the Science Review strand of the debate.

As the threat of a terrorist attack increases across Europe, a new study reveals that the UK's local authorities are not equipped to deal with the aftermath of such an attack or accident on a nuclear power station. This is despite new legislation (1), which makes local authorities directly responsible for all nuclear emergency planning beyond the station's perimeter fence.