While demonstrations at the Drax power station have been peaceful so far it looks as though the situation could escalate into a battle with law enforcement officers today.
The 600 or so tent dwelling protesters situated in the “village” near Selby are likely to swell to around 2,000 today (31st August) as environmental activists led by Reclaim Power promise a “mass day of action”, where they intend to storm the Drax power station and shut it down. Today promises to be the first large-scale direct action protest of it’s kind related to climate change.
Protestors will be met with resistance however. Such a police presence has not been seen in this area since the Miners’ Strike of the 1980s, and it appears they’re ready and waiting for campaigners. Officers have been drafted in from South Yorkshire, Durham and as far away as Hampshire.
Drax, situated on ‘megawatt valley’, is twice as big as any of the other plants in the UK and produces 4% of all CO2 emissions in this country, a quarter of all that from cars.
Although last year the Yorkshire based plant burned 9 million tonnes of coal, the 625 staff at Drax are bemused as to why they’ve been singled out, claiming they are one of the more efficient generators.
“We are just as committed to action on climate change, but working from the inside,” said employee Melanie Wedbury.
Environmental activist Laura Yates refutes this. She told The Independent, “With coal-fired plants like Drax, two thirds of the energy produced is wasted through heat loss.”
And Cambridge physics graduate Stephen Stretton added: “Tony Blair’s target on curbing emissions is based on the science of 1990 not that of 2006. This year we’ve seen the evidence that the Earth is becoming effectively ill.”