THE PRESS of December 10 pushed the boat out when reporting Ed Davey’s 15 minutes in the Drax spotlight. Yet further questions could have been asked in your report and editorial.

The £1 billion annual subsidy for this ‘renewable scheme’ went unmentioned. One scheduled to generate 50 per cent electricity, compared with a similar quantity of coal, but without significant reduction in CO2 emissions anticipated for many years, if ever.

A holistic, green approach suggests mentioning the emissions associated with felling virgin forest in the USA; grinding the timber to sawdust; drying this product to the correct moisture content before transportation to the nearest port and loading into ships.

Then shipping to the UK, unloading, taking it (14 trains a day) to Drax, unloading and storage – all requiring fossil fuel energy. Finally, burning it and producing similar, even greater, amounts of CO2 per unit generated.

Breakeven time is estimated to be 40 years, so presumably £40 billion in subsidies paid.

Still, perhaps in 40 years we might see the promised land: carbon capture and storage might work by then somewhere in the world, provided billions are thrown at it.

Nick Blitz, South Lane, Haxby, York.

 

•BBC coverage of the new Drax power station was typical of the sinister big government and big business alliances.

Billions of pounds in subsidies for Drax shareholders equate to soaring electricity costs for families and pensioners – the most expensive in the ‘free’ world.

Unchallenged assumptions on global warming (there is none!) stand alongside the ludicrous implication that CO2 is a pollutant, instead of a life-giving natural gas.

We must break the link between public service broadcasting, big business and government before they destroy the country between them.

Godfrey Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, Main Street, Wressle, Selby.