Energy - Green Reaction
WORKERS, OCT 2006 ISSUE
The generally tranquil countryside around Selby in Yorkshire was rudely disturbed for a week at the end of August, when hundreds of self styled "climate change activists" assembled and prepared for a day of action aimed at shutting down the mighty Drax power station.
Drax is the largest coal fired station in Europe, and supplies 7 per cent of our electricity, and is therefore a symbolic target for the protesters, who argue that it is a massive polluter. Ironically, it is the cleanest and most efficient such station, but this cuts no ice with the "eco bullies" as local residents describe them, who are opposed to all forms of large-scale power generation, and hence industry.
Police and private security firms were deployed in a show of force not seen since the days of the miners' strike. But the protesters will be back. Like the animal rights activists they so resemble, they are obsessed and will stop at nothing. Workers cannot avoid this battle of ideas unless they wish to see scientific advance and progress consigned to history.