<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/21/uk-trees-burned-green-drax-power-station>
"How green is this? We pay billions of pounds to cut down ancient forests in
the US and Canada, ship the wood across the Atlantic in diesel tankers, then
burn it in a Yorkshire-based power station.
Welcome to the scandal of Drax, where Britain’s biggest polluter gets to play
climate hero. The reality is that billions in public subsidies has enabled Drax
to generate electricity by burning 300m trees. Now the government is trying to
force through an extension that would grant Drax an estimated £1.8bn in public
subsidies on top of the £11bn it has already pocketed, keeping this circus
going until at least 2031.
This isn’t green energy. The mathematics alone should horrify anyone who cares
about value for money or the environment. Burning wood creates 18% more CO₂
emissions than coal. Even if you replant every tree Drax destroys, it takes up
to a century for new growth to reabsorb the carbon released. We’re supposed to
reach net zero by 2050, not 2125.
Yet through circus-trick accounting, all of Drax’s massive emissions magically
disappear from Britain’s climate ledger. They’ve simply been wished away –
counted as “zero”, while the company becomes our largest single contributor to
climate breakdown.
Extraordinarily, this scandal unites opposition across the political spectrum.
From the Greens to Reform, from the
Morning Star to the
Daily Telegraph,
there’s rare consensus that Drax represents everything wrong with our approach
to climate policy.
The Labour-dominated public accounts committee condemned Drax as a “white
elephant” that’s been allowed to “mark its own homework” while claiming
“billions upon billions” in subsidies. A Lords committee agreed, saying
parliament needs to see key documents before approving any more funding."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
