Oldbury Deal Leaves Risk with Glos: Gov Subsidy heads to Japan

Oldbury site

Oh dear, oh dear the news yesterday was dire re nuclear - here's the press release Greens sent out - Green District councillor Simon Pickering will be on BBC Glos after 7am this morning......

 

Green Party: “We Need to Take Control of Our Own Energy”

The announcement that Hitachi will pay to take control of the so-called Horizon project has been greeted with deep concern by the local Green Party. In 2010, the party published a report showing that Stroud is at great risk from potential nuclear accidents at the Oldbury site, which is a mere 16 miles from and directly upwind of the town that is famous as a centre of green innovation. [1]

Dr Simon Pickering, Executive Member for the Environment at Stroud District Council, said: 'The nuclear deal is all about  global corporations milking government subsidies, in this case a company based in a country that is considering abandoning its nuclear programme following the Fukushima disaster and its ongoing effects on public health. It is another example of profits being privatised and off-shored while the public bears the risk.'

Dr Pickering went to say that the Coalition Government’s focus on nuclear energy development will divert from the need to rapidly expand the country's renewable energy capacity in response to the threats from climate change. Every day, we throw away thousands of tons of food which could be used to generate electricity. The fuel for wind and wave power is free. The price of nuclear fuel will only increase, whilst the current cost to the UK of storing  waste nuclear fuel is £3bn per year, and this excludes the legacy clean up cost up cost of £72bn (2). This is financial incompetence and environmental madness.

Molly Scott Cato, a green economist and leader of the Green Group on Stroud District Council, was also highly critical of the development: 'The failure of the government to develop an energy policy leaves us very vulnerable as energy prices rise. The Green Party would invest massively in both home insulation and renewable energy. And at the local level we would support energy co-operatives like Gloucestershire Energy Co-operative. As the example of Denmark shows, these are the fairest and fastest way to move towards local energy security.'

The Green Group on SDC is proposing a revolving loan fund to support  costs associated with establishing community renewable schemes. This forms part of its proposal for local economic development as part of the annual budget negotiations.

Notes

 

(1) The Right to Know: Oldbury Nuclear Expansion and Your Safety – the risks to the people of Gloucestershire

(2)  Voodoo economics and the doomed nuclear renaissance: Research Paper  Friends of the Earth UK

A Plan for Clean British Energy: Friends of the Earth