YP Letters: Drax Power station helps destroy forests on other side of globe

THE Yorkshire Post has reported on the benefits that Drax Power Station brings to the local communities in the Selby region.

First MP Nigel Adams (The Yorkshire Post, May 6, 2016) reported that Drax will enhance the local communities by providing jobs and providing clean energy – biomass energy.

Neil Hudson reported (The Yorkshire Post, February 9) on similar views and further extends his report by asserting the environmental benefits of Drax.

In his report, he emphasises Drax Power Station uses sustainable biomass and will reduce Britain’s fossil fuel 
output.

He further adds that Drax will reduce the country’s fossil fuel emissions. Plus Drax will eventually reduce its reliance of coal of which by 2025 should be down to zero, thereby Drax will be providing clean biomass energy to the UK.

However neither Mr Adams nor Mr Hudson have accounted for the environmental and human cost biomass and coal used at Drax Power Station.

Biomass energy which comes from cutting down trees to be made into pellets does not come from, as Mr Hudson would have us believe, from sustainable plantations.

In fact the majority of Drax biomass comes from clear felling old growth swamp forest from the Southern USA. They are rich in biodiversity, these swamp pine forests are hundreds of thousands years old.

The forests are home to various species of plants and animals which are now rare in the Southern United States.

They also mitigate against climate change by absorbing fossil fuels. Such forests are also very effective in capturing carbon and therefore reduce the adverse effects of climate change – unlike Drax Power Station which releases huge amounts of highly polluting carbon either by using biomass or coal.

Drax Power Station provides very few jobs for local people and the cost to the British taxpayer far outweighs the benefits considering the British taxpayer subsidises Drax Power Station to the tune of £584m every year.

In my opinion, Drax Power Station is not worth the human and environmental costs of providing so called sustainable biomass.

The power station needs to be closed down and proper investment in clean renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and wave energy, rather than subsiding a power station which destroys old growth forests and shatters lives on the other side of the globe.