DRAX

[Stinsy]

https://x.com/artemisfornow/status/1895 ... Au0RqJZL0Q

Really is the worst of all worlds. Sucks in £1bn in taxpayer subsidies to: mow down virgin forests on the other side of the world, process into pellets, dry, and ship thousands of miles to burn in a converted coal power station.

The epitome of fake environmentalism, the sole objective of which is to maximise profits for its hedge fund owners.

[AE-NMidlands]

Robber barons... that is what capitalism is these days - and hence why Rees-Mogg and his ilk wanted to get away from European-style social democracy and the controls that go with it and into a US-style winner-takes-all deregulated business environment.

[John_S]

Frankly, it is time to reclassify it as fossil fuel.

[Stinsy]

My fear is that we have a lot more of this nonsense to come. “Carbon capture and storage” is just FF companies carrying on as they were. Just with £20bn of our money funding a charade at the end of the process.

[robl]

Why did Ed Milliband agree to CCS and also to subsidise Drax? I think it pained him to do so, must’ve been some serious lobbying going on.

[Stinsy]

Why did Ed Milliband agree to CCS and also to subsidise Drax? I think it pained him to do so, must’ve been some serious lobbying going on.

I'm not so sure the Milliband brothers are "innocent bystanders"!

[AE-NMidlands]

More on Drax: https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... e-pandemic says

Drax power plant to cut carbon capture investment despite record £1bn profit
The owner of the Drax wood-burning power plant will slow its investment in carbon capture to reduce its emissions, despite securing an extra three years of government subsidies and earning record profits above £1bn last year.
Drax Group said it would commit less investment to fitting the technology at the North Yorkshire power plant unless the government provided clarity over the returns it could expect to make from the upgrade.

The company signalled the slowdown just weeks after the government agreed to pay extra public subsidies worth about half a billion pounds a year to help the company develop its carbon capture project after 2027, when its current subsidy regime ends.
The company lobbied for the extra support from 2027 to 2031, arguing it was necessary to keep the power plant running while it develops the scheme, which could begin operating in the 2030s.

On Thursday, however, Drax said it would “commit less development investment” to its strategic investments – including carbon removals, 24/7 renewable power, datacentres and energy storage – “until we receive greater certainty on appropriate regulatory structures and investments returns”.
The warning came alongside the company’s financial results, which showed that it had made the highest earnings in its 35-year history. Its adjusted earnings rose to £1.06bn last year, narrowly above its profits of £1.01bn the year before.
The profits are largely built on the billion-pound subsidies given to Drax for burning biomass, which is considered a form of renewable energy despite claims from climate scientists that it may increase emissions in the short term.

Sheer greed...

[Stinsy]

More on Drax: https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... e-pandemic says

Drax power plant to cut carbon capture investment despite record £1bn profit
The owner of the Drax wood-burning power plant will slow its investment in carbon capture to reduce its emissions, despite securing an extra three years of government subsidies and earning record profits above £1bn last year.
Drax Group said it would commit less investment to fitting the technology at the North Yorkshire power plant unless the government provided clarity over the returns it could expect to make from the upgrade.

The company signalled the slowdown just weeks after the government agreed to pay extra public subsidies worth about half a billion pounds a year to help the company develop its carbon capture project after 2027, when its current subsidy regime ends.
The company lobbied for the extra support from 2027 to 2031, arguing it was necessary to keep the power plant running while it develops the scheme, which could begin operating in the 2030s.

On Thursday, however, Drax said it would “commit less development investment” to its strategic investments – including carbon removals, 24/7 renewable power, datacentres and energy storage – “until we receive greater certainty on appropriate regulatory structures and investments returns”.
The warning came alongside the company’s financial results, which showed that it had made the highest earnings in its 35-year history. Its adjusted earnings rose to £1.06bn last year, narrowly above its profits of £1.01bn the year before.
The profits are largely built on the billion-pound subsidies given to Drax for burning biomass, which is considered a form of renewable energy despite claims from climate scientists that it may increase emissions in the short term.

Sheer greed...

There is a scene in a movie, maybe The Wolf Of Wall Street, where the boss takes a young stock broker to lunch. The boss asks the youngster what he’s achieving at work. The answer is along the lines of “Helping people grow their savings and plan for their retirement”. The boss corrects him: “you’re taking money from their pocket and putting it in yours, everything else is a charade to make that happen”.

Drax (and other similar schemes) reminds me of this scene. They have zero concern for the environment or climate change. The entire purpose is to take money out of the pockets of millions of ordinary taxpayers and put it in theirs. It just turns out that a greenwashing grift is the most efficient way to do that.

[Fintray]

I wish the government would just put it back to them and say that due to your change of commitment we are stopping all subsidies forthwith and see what their response is.

[Stinsy]

I wish the government would just put it back to them and say that due to your change of commitment we are stopping all subsidies forthwith and see what their response is.

The problem is that "the government" you refer to is staffed by politicians and civil servants who are very keen indeed on getting themselves a cushy job at one of the hedge funds that own Drax.