Living in North Kent? Lights flickering a bit? Then perhaps the blame lies at the door of the 50 or so Greenpeace activists who this afternoon are laying siege to the Kingsnorth Power Plant on the Hoo Peninsular in North Kent. The massed band of protestors is attempting to take the power plant off the National Grid, chaining themselves to generators and arming with grappling irons and the like to climb the power station’s smoke stacks. And the reason for this invasion? Plant owners E.ON UK have proposed that the Kingsnorth plant be the site of the first new coal-fired power station to be built on the British for nearly 2 decades. E.ON announced back in October last that it had plans to build two new coal units at Kingsnorth, saying they would be cleaner and more efficient than the current ones with "state-of-the-art technology" reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The company estimates the two new units will reduce carbon emissions by about two million tonnes a year.
However the environmental activists oppose the new plants claiming they would waste almost 50% of the energy it produced. Greenpeace claimed that over 13 thousand letters of protest had been sent to Medway Council, though it would seem the final decision rests in the lap of Gordon Brown as Greenpeace called on him not to “bottle it on climate change”. Conservative Central Office’s lawyers’ writ for plagiarism is being biked round to Greenpeace HQ as we speak!
Back to the siege of Kingsnorth which began at 5 this morning. E.ON say the plant is still operational despite the disruptive protestors who have apparently been clambering around on coal conveyors, pressing emergency stop buttons and running with scissors.
An official statement from the plant said: "It is thought that 23 Greenpeace protesters are currently on power station property and several of them have chained themselves to generators.
"Police have closed surrounding roads and have already moved on 30 people from the outskirts of the site."
One protester, 22-year-old Joss Garman from North London, described the action to the BBC as a form of "peaceful civil disobedience" which could last for days rather than hours, depending on when their mothers called them in for tea. "There is another team who are scaling the 250m-high (820 feet) smoke stack and they've got enough supplies to last for a few days," the young scamp said.
Mr Garman claimed the new coal units planned for Kingsnorth would do little to reduce carbon emissions. "This power station [currently] wastes over two-thirds of the energy that it produces... although it will be slightly more efficient, this new plant will still lose over half the energy it will create."
He added that protesters hoped to have taken the power station off the National Grid later on Monday, but claimed there would be no blackouts as a result.
E.ON UK spokesman Jonathan Smith said: "They're in a number of places inside the power station, but they aren't actually causing it to stop running just yet.
"These people are not qualified to be in our power station... we're working very closely with the police to try to ensure a safe and swift end to this protest."
Mr Smith also said the proposals were for a "cleaner coal development".
"The new units will be carbon capture-ready, which means they would have the pipework on them to actually capture the carbon dioxide and to store it underground once that technology is proven."
However the environmental activists oppose the new plants claiming they would waste almost 50% of the energy it produced. Greenpeace claimed that over 13 thousand letters of protest had been sent to Medway Council, though it would seem the final decision rests in the lap of Gordon Brown as Greenpeace called on him not to “bottle it on climate change”. Conservative Central Office’s lawyers’ writ for plagiarism is being biked round to Greenpeace HQ as we speak!
Back to the siege of Kingsnorth which began at 5 this morning. E.ON say the plant is still operational despite the disruptive protestors who have apparently been clambering around on coal conveyors, pressing emergency stop buttons and running with scissors.
An official statement from the plant said: "It is thought that 23 Greenpeace protesters are currently on power station property and several of them have chained themselves to generators.
"Police have closed surrounding roads and have already moved on 30 people from the outskirts of the site."
One protester, 22-year-old Joss Garman from North London, described the action to the BBC as a form of "peaceful civil disobedience" which could last for days rather than hours, depending on when their mothers called them in for tea. "There is another team who are scaling the 250m-high (820 feet) smoke stack and they've got enough supplies to last for a few days," the young scamp said.
Mr Garman claimed the new coal units planned for Kingsnorth would do little to reduce carbon emissions. "This power station [currently] wastes over two-thirds of the energy that it produces... although it will be slightly more efficient, this new plant will still lose over half the energy it will create."
He added that protesters hoped to have taken the power station off the National Grid later on Monday, but claimed there would be no blackouts as a result.
E.ON UK spokesman Jonathan Smith said: "They're in a number of places inside the power station, but they aren't actually causing it to stop running just yet.
"These people are not qualified to be in our power station... we're working very closely with the police to try to ensure a safe and swift end to this protest."
Mr Smith also said the proposals were for a "cleaner coal development".
"The new units will be carbon capture-ready, which means they would have the pipework on them to actually capture the carbon dioxide and to store it underground once that technology is proven."
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