Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have accused police of acting as “private security” for the UK’s biggest carbon emitter after dozens of pre-emptive arrests forced the cancellation of a climate protest camp near Drax power station.
In a statement signed by almost 150 groups, they called the operation against activists who had spent months planning the camp near the wood-burning power station “an unreasonable restriction of free speech”.
It comes as the Labour government faces difficult choices over the future of Drax, which, despite contributing about 3% of the UK’s carbon emissions, is classed as “renewable” and benefits from about £2m a day in green energy subsidies.
Activists from Reclaim the Power had planned to camp near Drax, near Selby in North Yorkshire, from 8 August for five days, in a protest highlighting its environmental impact. But on the eve of the camp, police swooped, arresting 25 people and seizing tents, fire safety equipment and wheelchair accessible flooring, without which activists said they could not go ahead.
North Yorkshire police said they acted “swiftly and robustly to reduce the risk of unlawful activity”. But environmental groups said they are outraged at the action, which came as the country was elsewhere gripped by violent anti-immigration riots.
“Now we know what the police have been doing with their resources: preventing citizens from criticising a profit-making company which receives huge amounts of public money,” the groups said.
“The public has the right to express their views over how their money is spent. Gathering at a camp to express these views is not a crime. Police taking equipment to prevent this camp going ahead is an unreasonable restriction of free speech and is highly oppressive.
“The UK has seen 15 years of falling living standards, a cost of living crisis and decades of blaming migrants for the UK’s problems. But the real cause of our economic problems is the corrupt relationship between the state and corporations like Drax, who receive state support while profiting from sky-high energy bills, and who seem to be using the police as their own private security.”
Built as a coal-fired power station but since converted to use wood in its boilers, Drax emitted about 11.5M tonnes of CO2 last year. Nevertheless, wood – or biomass – counts as renewable fuel, making the company eligible for renewable energy subsidies, on the basis that new forests can be grown to replace the biomass burned.
But regrowing forests takes decades, while the carbon from burning trees enters the atmosphere – and heats the planet – now. In the midst of a climate emergency, there is increasing concern from scientists and activists that biomass burning is a dangerous diversion from the task of decarbonising power.