Drax has been offered a lifeline by a shortsighted government, whose obsession with growth leads them to subsidise shareholders and executives to mind-blowing amounts, well over £1m per day of taxpayers money, Drax is on borrowed time and money and before the inevitable happens we need to have in place a Green alternative industry that offers all the workers a real future with real change for them and the Climate!!
Burning trees from across the other side of the world requires an exercise in Greenwashing of huge proportions which this government have either been duped by or sold their insipid green credentials for political gain.
The billions of pounds worth of subsidies run out in 2027, but the government is expected to try to renew them next week, turning taxpayer money into profits for a private company, instead of using the money to fuel a green energy revolution, which would guarantee the workforce and all ancillary companies a job for decades in a truly renewable industry.
Drax has benefitted from over £6 billion in subsidies since 2012 and neither taxpayers nor the environment want it to continue; if the government are looking for somewhere to spend millions then listen to the nation and put it into Health, Education to name two.
Some of the money should be used to help fund a national scheme of home insulation that would cut people’s energy bills and help to reduce energy use.
Green Councillors and environmental campaigners all over Yorkshire and Humber will be pressing the government to end this subsidy scandal and invest people’s money where it will make a real difference to them.
Message to editors:
Please use any of this statement as quotes and contact me for further comment if you need to.
Arnold Warneken
Councillor for Ouseburn Division | North Yorkshire Council
m: 07702 121386
a: Goosemoor Organics, Cowthorpe, Wetherby LS22 5EU