Activists blockade Aberthaw power station

bristol | the environment | news report Thursday April 03, 2008 06:39 by alex - Bristol Rising Tides bristol@risingtide.org.uk

10 Bristol activist are blockading Aberthaw power station in wales. the worst polluter in wales. They have done a joint action with bath, cardiff and oxford activists too highlight one of the uk's major companies behind climate change, numerouse actions have been taking place over the week too highlight the major climate change contributors as part of fossil fools day.

Today members of Bristol Rising Tide, a group of climate activists [1], are participating in an action that has stopped normal work at Wale's biggest polluter, Aberthaw Power Station in the Vale of Glamorgan. The power station, also condemned by workers for its poor safety record, last year pumped out more than 7.4million tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide), the major contributor to climate change. It also emitted 28,000 tonnes of nitrogen dioxide and 31,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide – two chemicals that contribute to acid rain.

This action comes after the successful closure by activists of Ffos-y-Fran open cast mine in Merthyr Tydfil, on Tuesday 1st April. Ffos-y-Fran is the biggest mine in Europe and has been forced upon the people of Merthyr Tydfil in-order to fuel the dirtiest of all power stations and big business's greed for profit.

As the world acknowledges the need for a substantial reduction in carbon emissions the government and the Welsh Assembly have given their backing for the mining company Miller-Argent to spend upwards of 17 years extracting 11 million tons of coal from the nearby Ffos-y-Fran open cast mine in Merthyr Tydfil to continue feeding this power station.

As fossil fuels go coal is a serious contender for the dirtiest known. But despite the fact that coal-burning generators produce twice the carbon emissions of gas burners [2], the government intends to build £20 billion worth of new coal-burning generators by 2020.

Gordon James, director of Friends of the Earth Cymru, described the power station as a “dirty dinosaur” that should not be allowed to stay open in its present form. But RWENPower, the generating company that runs Aberthaw, said, “It is true Aberthaw Power Station is a large emitter of CO2 and that there are other emissions involved in power generation.”

Bristol Rising Tide believes that it is crucial to highlight the concerns and issues surrounding the development of Aberthaw and the proposed new investments into Coal powered generators such as Kingsnorth power station in Kent. The site of the next Camp for Climate Action.

Ciara, a member of Bristol Rising Tide states: “The burning of coal at Aberthaw and the new power stations across the UK such as Kingsnorth will only exacerbate the problems of climate chaos. People need to know that the government is hell bent on returning us to the dark age of fossil fuel.”