A number of environmental NGOs have thrown a bit of a hissy fit and taken their ball home, boycotting the Government’s ongoing consultation about the future of nuclear power and it position in the whole scheme of “renewable” energy. The loose confederation of Green groups includes the Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, the Green Alliance and surprisingly CND, whose anti stance on nuclear weapons might somewhat influence their position as regards nuclear power and cloud (mushroom?) any objective views that might be put forward. According to these disparate groups, the government has "already made up its mind on the issue of nuclear power".
Friends of the Earth's Director, Tony Juniper, said:
"This is not a genuine consultation about nuclear power. It is deeply flawed and it is clear that the Government has essentially made up its mind. We are perfectly happy to debate the issue of nuclear power, but we are not prepared to take part in this latest Government farce.
"Nuclear power is not a solution to climate change. A new programme would only generate around four per cent of the UK's energy consumption. It is expensive and dangerous, and will leave a highly toxic legacy for many generations to come. There are lots of non-nuclear alternatives that would combat climate change, maintain energy security and keep the lights on. The Government should invest in these solutions and make Britain a world leader in developing a safe and sustainable low-carbon economy."
Strikes me that it is not only the Government that came to the table with its opinions already firmly cast in stone. Already the consultation has had to be restarted once after Greenpeace won a ruling in the High Court, with Mr Justice Sullivan stating that the original consultation was “seriously flawed”, but one does wonder why such groups were consulted in the first place when it seems glaringly obvious that they would hold a contrary view? The words of Greenpeace Director, John Sauven, in the wake of his and the other invitees walking out, would seem to echo this point. In a press release Sauven said, "This new consultation is a sham and a fraud. It manages somehow to be just as skewed as the last, and seems to have been designed to ignore the views of the public while simultaneously telling people what they should think.
"This government can’t get nuclear power past a fair consultation because the policy is environmentally, financially and scientifically flawed. That’s why ministers have gone for a stitch-up. A glance at the consultation document and Gordon Brown’s promise of a new kind of politics looks like a joke. Compared to Blair it’s the same style, different sofa. It’s not too late for ministers to salvage this process and avoid another legal showdown. But if they won’t listen to the public they might once again be forced to listen to a legal mauling from the High Court," he continued.
At times those who run the Environmental NGOs seem as detached from reality as those wandering the corridors of power in Whitehall and Westminster. The proverbial man on the Clapham Omnibus does not give a jot whether his power comes from a power station belching fumes, some enormous army of wind turbines marching across Britain’s Green and Pleasant Land or a nuclear power plant whose effluent might give half the fish in the North Sea an extra eye. He cares that the light bulb comes on when he flicks the switch, the TV flickers into life when the button is pushed and that the Playstation is alive to keep his troublesome brood occupied.
Against the naysayers came the words of Atkins’ Ivor Catto who recently used his blog on the New Civil Engineer’s website to argue the case for nuclear power to be classified alongside the “cleaner” forms of “renewable” energy as Green for with all the current furore over living a “carbon neutral” life, surely nuclear power can be considered an environmental technology for its carbon emissions are among the lowest of any of the various forms of energy generation?
Whilst Britain dithers and dawdles, consulting dyed in the wool Cassandras perhaps we should glance across the channel to our French cousines, for while the greenies pontificate about the UK Nuclear industry from their Belgravian ivory towers, Nuclear Power stations at Gravelines, near Dunkirk, Penly, near Dieppe, and Paluel in Normandy continue apace drawing their water from the English Channel and generating nuclear power nearly 200 miles closer to London than the likes of Sellafield and Dounreay.
Friends of the Earth's Director, Tony Juniper, said:
"This is not a genuine consultation about nuclear power. It is deeply flawed and it is clear that the Government has essentially made up its mind. We are perfectly happy to debate the issue of nuclear power, but we are not prepared to take part in this latest Government farce.
"Nuclear power is not a solution to climate change. A new programme would only generate around four per cent of the UK's energy consumption. It is expensive and dangerous, and will leave a highly toxic legacy for many generations to come. There are lots of non-nuclear alternatives that would combat climate change, maintain energy security and keep the lights on. The Government should invest in these solutions and make Britain a world leader in developing a safe and sustainable low-carbon economy."
Strikes me that it is not only the Government that came to the table with its opinions already firmly cast in stone. Already the consultation has had to be restarted once after Greenpeace won a ruling in the High Court, with Mr Justice Sullivan stating that the original consultation was “seriously flawed”, but one does wonder why such groups were consulted in the first place when it seems glaringly obvious that they would hold a contrary view? The words of Greenpeace Director, John Sauven, in the wake of his and the other invitees walking out, would seem to echo this point. In a press release Sauven said, "This new consultation is a sham and a fraud. It manages somehow to be just as skewed as the last, and seems to have been designed to ignore the views of the public while simultaneously telling people what they should think.
"This government can’t get nuclear power past a fair consultation because the policy is environmentally, financially and scientifically flawed. That’s why ministers have gone for a stitch-up. A glance at the consultation document and Gordon Brown’s promise of a new kind of politics looks like a joke. Compared to Blair it’s the same style, different sofa. It’s not too late for ministers to salvage this process and avoid another legal showdown. But if they won’t listen to the public they might once again be forced to listen to a legal mauling from the High Court," he continued.
At times those who run the Environmental NGOs seem as detached from reality as those wandering the corridors of power in Whitehall and Westminster. The proverbial man on the Clapham Omnibus does not give a jot whether his power comes from a power station belching fumes, some enormous army of wind turbines marching across Britain’s Green and Pleasant Land or a nuclear power plant whose effluent might give half the fish in the North Sea an extra eye. He cares that the light bulb comes on when he flicks the switch, the TV flickers into life when the button is pushed and that the Playstation is alive to keep his troublesome brood occupied.
Against the naysayers came the words of Atkins’ Ivor Catto who recently used his blog on the New Civil Engineer’s website to argue the case for nuclear power to be classified alongside the “cleaner” forms of “renewable” energy as Green for with all the current furore over living a “carbon neutral” life, surely nuclear power can be considered an environmental technology for its carbon emissions are among the lowest of any of the various forms of energy generation?
Whilst Britain dithers and dawdles, consulting dyed in the wool Cassandras perhaps we should glance across the channel to our French cousines, for while the greenies pontificate about the UK Nuclear industry from their Belgravian ivory towers, Nuclear Power stations at Gravelines, near Dunkirk, Penly, near Dieppe, and Paluel in Normandy continue apace drawing their water from the English Channel and generating nuclear power nearly 200 miles closer to London than the likes of Sellafield and Dounreay.
Gravelines Power Station in France, one of the largest in Europe and a mere stone's throw across the English Channel (Image: Areva)
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