Gaddafi’s last stronghold, the city of Sirte, becomes Libya’s final battle
October 6, 2011 No Comment
Libya’s revolution now rests on this one key city but its besieged residents are paying a high price for liberation The hotel does not even have a name. It was finished but never opened because of the outbreak of the Libyan revolution earlier this year. These days it serves as one of the bases of the revolutionary forces attempting to take Sirte from some of the last loyalists of the Gaddafi regime. The stairs to the seventh floor roof terrace are spotted with blood. The large windows, with views on to the Mediterranean and the beach below, have been blown out by sniper fire. From the roof terrace itself, where a spotter surveys the sniper positions from behind sandbags to call in tank fire, the besieged coastal city is visible below. To one side the highway that runs alongside the sea is empty, save for the armed trucks of the forces of Libya’s new government. On this, the east side of the city, the fighters are largely from the east – from Benghazi and cities like Bayda. Straight ahead, however, is a collection of buildings near the Ibn Sana hospital – two miles (3km) away – which has become the target of the tanks, rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns of Libya’s revolutionaries, lined up on the low sandy ridge that overlooks the town. On Thursday a pall of white smoke hung across this district as shells exploded every few minutes, and people in the hotel warned of a sniper firing from the minaret of a mosque 500 metres away from the hotel. “We want to get this thing finished quickly,” said a young bearded fighter standing by the wrecked lifts. “We had a plan to try and open the road to the hospital to evacuate civilians, but there were too many snipers. Yesterday we tried many times to open the road.” It is a reflection of the nature of Libya’s last battle. The new government has said it will announce full liberation when Sirte is taken , even though a second town – Bani Walid – has also yet to fall. But it is on the fall of Sirte that all expectations have been pegged. The battle is a ramshackle affair. On the west side of the city, where the katibas [rebels] from Misrata launch almost daily attempts to take the Gaddafi stronghold of the Ougadougou conference centre, the fighters gathered for an impromptu breakfast outside a little field hospital. On Thursday they had poured in behind three tanks only to be driven back by missiles. On the east side of Sirte, reached via a dirt road that skirts the city, the forces appear more organised. In the morning, a group met at a roundabout on the outskirts of the city, close to where a tank was pounding the buildings below. A burst of bullets came across the roundabout, sending the men scuttling for cover. “Yesterday the Gaddafi forces come up to the roundabout with an anti-aircraft gun and fired at us,” said Salam Farjani, 37, who came to Sirte from Bayda. There were no civilians around at this time; Farjani explained that they try to leave early in the morning and at dusk, when it is safer. “The ones who are left are the ones who have no petrol for their cars,” he said. “And the Gaddafi fighters in the town are just fighting for their survival. Salay Abiydi leads us up to an unfinished house overlooking the city. “See the buildings behind the hospital? Most of Gaddafi’s military is there. They have surrounded them with truck containers filled with sand. We have their radio frequency.” There is no water, electricity or petrol. People who come out of Sirte – including deserters – say everything is very expensive. Even a cigarette lighter costs four dollars. “When we see deserters, sometimes they try to come out with their families, but we find a pistol or papers saying who they are. They know it is finished. The last deserter that we had was a week ago from Gaddafi’s tribe,” said Abiydi. And while many have fled or are trying to flee the bombardment of Sirte, not all of those who want to will be able to get out before the government forces launch their long-threatened final assault. “We don’t expect to evacuate all of the city,” said Saleh Jabou, commander of one of the revolutionary katibas, the Lions of the Wadi. “We will still attack and that will be in a few days. We have people still trying to negotiate, but Gaddafi’s people – if they reply – say just give us more time.” The latest heavy fighting in Sirte came as the Red Cross said it was communicating with both sides but struggling to deliver aid because of the danger of operating in the city. “We barely manage to drive in,” said Dibeh Fakr, at a field hospital in a mosque on the outskirts of the city. “We deliver the items and get out, because the security situation is so bad and we can be targeted and may be caught in the shooting.” The battle for Sirte has come at a high cost for civilians. They are trapped, with dwindling supplies of food and water and no proper medical facilities to treat the wounded. Many residents are members of Gaddafi’s own tribe and those fleeing the city blamed the death and destruction on the forces of the new government, and the Nato alliance, whose warplanes have been flying sorties over the city. Hajj Abdullah, in his late 50s, was at a Red Cross post on the edge of Sirte where food was being handed out, explaining he had just escaped the city. “My 11-year-old died from the Nato rockets … I buried him where he died,” he told Reuters, “because it was too dangerous to go to the cemetery. There are random strikes in the city. People are dying in their houses.” Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Kenneth Clarke prepares for ‘enforced retirement’ following cat spat with May
October 6, 2011 No Comment
Justice secretary unlikely to survive next reshuffle as No 10 backs home secretary in fall out over Human Rights Act Kenneth Clarke is bracing himself for an enforced retirement from the cabinet after Downing Street reacted furiously to his accusation that Theresa May gave a “laughable, childlike” example in criticising the Human Rights Act at this week’s Tory party conference. David Cameron is assessing whether to clear out the bulk of Clarke’s Ministry of Justice in a long-awaited reshuffle, after what No 10 regards as a series of blunders. The reshuffle was due in the spring but there was speculation that the shakeup, which will see the departure of the justice ministers Crispin Blunt and Jonathan Djanogly over separate mistakes, could come as early as next month. Clarke annoyed Cameron for the second time in a week yesterday when he appeared to raise the stakes in his dispute with No 10 and May over the Human Rights Act. In an interview with the Nottingham Post, the local newspaper in his Rushcliffe constituency, he launched a fresh attack on the home secretary over her claim that a man had been able to avoid deportation because he owned a cat. The justice secretary, who had mocked May at the Tory conference on Tuesday, said: “I sat and listened to Theresa’s speech, and I’ll have to be very polite to Theresa when I meet her – but in my opinion she should really address her researchers and advisers very severely for assuring her that a complete nonsense example in her speech was true. “I’m not going to stand there and say in my private opinion this is a terrible thing and we ought to get rid of the Human Rights Act. It’s not only the judges that all get furious when the home secretary makes a parody of a court judgment – our commission, who are helping us form our view on this, are not going to be entertained by laughable, child-like examples being given.” In further remarks on the website of the Nottingham Post’s political editor, Joe Watts, Clarke said: “I expect I will have to wear body armour the next time I meet Theresa. She was at the thing I was at last night, but I thought it was too soon to go over and greet her and say: ‘It wasn’t my fault.’” No 10, which strongly supported May’s speech and feared the justice secretary was opening a second front, asked Clarke to explain himself. Clarke told them he had given the interview in Manchester, a few hours before Cameron’s speech to the conference. In a statement released at lunchtime, Clarke said: “This is old news from an interview I gave during the conference. I consider this issue closed. “The prime minister has made the position clear, and I fully support it. There is a problem with deporting foreign prisoners, which I have always agreed with Theresa needs to be addressed. The government’s commission on a bill of rights is under way. I do rather regret the colourful language I used at one point in my interview.” No 10 thought the statement would close down the affair. But officials had failed to spot that Clarke and May were due to attend a ministerial meeting on trade. When they were spotted entering No 10, rumours appeared on Twitter that they had been summoned to No 10 for a dressing down. The two ministers made a point of talking in a friendly way as they left No 10 together. Downing Street regards Clarke’s public mocking of May as unacceptable behaviour towards a cabinet colleague. There is particular anger as it was the only divisive moment during the Tory conference. Friends of Clarke, 71, accept that he may struggle to remain in the cabinet when the prime minister carries out his reshuffle. They acknowledge the PM will be able to argue that a graceful retirement is the right option for the MP who entered parliament when Cameron was three years old. The Ministry of Justice could see the departure of three of its ministers. Blunt is being lined up for the sack after a row last summer over parties for prisoners. Djanogly has annoyed No 10 over the handling of his business affairs. But Clarke is adamant that he is right in his criticisms of May. He cites a statement by the judicial communications office on Tuesday, issued with the full authority of the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, which said the Home Office was wrong. The original immigration ruling makes clear the judge considered the dying father of the Bolivian student’s partner far more important than their joint ownership of Maya the cat in deciding the case. The officially unreported judgment which emerged on Thursdayreveals that the unnamed student, aged 33, had been living in a “strong relationship” for four years with his gay partner who is settled in Britain. It is also shows that the senior immigration judge, JR Devittie, regarded evidence from friends and his partner’s brothers to the strong quality of their relationship as “persuasive and telling”. The original ruling shows that the student had entered Britain legally but overstayed his visa and was issued with a removal notice after being arrested for shoplifting. He was never charged with the offence. The detailed ruling makes clear that the evidence about the cat was only introduced by a witness. While sources close to May have been keen to stress this reference to the cat, they have not quoted the judge’s conclusion that the evidence from friends, relatives and photographs of family occasions had “amply demonstrated” the quality and strength of their relationship: “The evidence shows that the appellant is well integrated into the larger family his partner has with his siblings and parents. He attends family functions with his partner and is regarded as a member of the family.” He also rejected the Home Office’s contention that they could both simply go and live in Bolivia, pointing out that would not be reasonable given that his partner’s father was ‘in a condition that he was not expected to recover from’ and the family, including the Bolivian student had collectively decided to support him. The Home Office appealed Devittie’s decision claiming it had placed “an inappropriate weight on the Bolivian student having to leave behind not only his partner but also his joint cat.” The appeal judge, senior immigration judge Gleeson, does not seem to have taken this seriously and says that the Home Office claim that Devittie had made a mistake in law by applying a policy that had already been withdrawn was more significant. When the case was heard on 1 December 2008 Gleeson dismissed the appeal saying the immigration authorities had overlooked their own procedures for dealing with unmarried partners of a person present or settled in the UK. But even this judge couldn’t resist a parting shot: “The immigration judge’s determination is upheld and the cat need no longer fear having to adapt to Bolivian mice.” Kenneth Clarke Theresa May Conservatives Human Rights Act Human rights Immigration and asylum Conservative conference 2011 Nicholas Watt Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Britain in grip of worst ever financial crisis, Bank of England governor fears
October 6, 2011 No Comment
£75bn more quantitative easing announced by Sir Mervyn King to boost demand in economy Sir Mervyn King expressed fears that Britain is in the grip of the world’s worst ever financial crisis after the Bank of England announced it was injecting £75bn into the ailing economy. The Bank’s governor said the UK was suffering from a 1930s-style shortage of money and needed a second dose of quantitative easing to boost demand and prevent inflation falling too low. Shares rose strongly in the City, posting a rise of almost 200 points, after Threadneedle Street responded to growing evidence of a looming double-dip recession and the deepening crisis in the eurozone with a four-month programme of electronic money creation. Dismissing concerns that the action risked adding to inflationary pressure, King said Britain was now facing a different problem from the days when too much money flowing round the economy pushed up the annual cost of living. “There is not enough money. That may seem unfamiliar to people.” he told Sky News. “But that’s because this is the most serious financial crisis at least since the 1930s, if not ever.” George Osborne agreed to King’s request to be able to expand the asset purchase scheme under which the Bank buys government bonds from commercial banks. The chancellor said further steps would be taken to boost growth in his autumn statement next month. “Given evidence of continued impairment in the flow of credit to some parts of the real economy, notably small and medium-sized businesses, the Treasury is exploring further policy options,” Osborne said in a letter to the governor. “Such interventions should complement the monetary policy committee’s [MPC] asset purchases.” Britain’s first dose of quantitative easing, also known as QE1, was in 2009/10, with £200bn being injected into the economy. Labour said the launch of QE2 was an admission that the government’s economic policy had failed. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, said: “With our economy stagnated since last autumn David Cameron and George Osborne are now betting on a bailout from the Bank of England. The government’s reckless policy of cutting spending and raising taxes too far and too fast is demonstrably not working. But rather than change course the government has spent the last week urging the Bank of England to step in and essentially print more money.” Some in the City were caught unawares by the scale and the timing of the Bank’s move. Last month, only one of the nine members of the MPC, Adam Posen, voted for more QE, but the mood has changed in response to poor domestic news and concerns that Europe’s sovereign debt crisis risks a repeat of the mayhem three years ago following the bankruptcy of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers. “The pace of global expansion has slackened, especially in the United Kingdom’s main export markets,” the MPC said in a statement explaining its decision. “Vulnerabilities associated with the indebtedness of some euro-area sovereigns and banks have resulted in severe strains in bank funding markets and financial markets more generally. These tensions in the world economy threaten the UK recovery.” The MPC said the slowdown in the UK economy, which saw no growth in the nine months to mid-2011, had in part been caused by temporary factors, but added that there was also evidence that the underlying pace of activity had weakened. It said the squeeze on real incomes caused by inflation running well ahead of wage increases and the impact of Osborne’s austerity programme were “likely to continue to weigh on domestic spending”. King admitted that inflation could breach 5% next month but said that would be the peak. Analysts said the Bank was now clearly more concerned about the risks of recession than about the possibility of a rise in inflation. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics this week showed that the downturn of 2008/09 was even deeper than originally believed, with gross domestic product dropping by 7.1% in the biggest recession since the second world war. The flatlining of the economy since last autumn has left activity still 4.4 percentage points below its 2008 peak. The TUC’s general secretary, Brendan Barber, said the decision to expand QE was the right one, but added: “While it is better than not doing anything, quantitative easing is no economic magic wand. “We worry that it does more to help the finance sector than the rest of the economy and could fuel further inflation at a time when living standards are already being squeezed.” Business leaders welcomed the move. Graeme Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, said: “Near-zero GDP and money supply growth made a compelling case and the Bank of England was right to launch QE2. It could be argued that the Bank of England was slow to introduce QE the first time, but thankfully it hasn’t made the same mistake twice.” By the end of the four-month programme, the Bank will have bought a total of £275bn in assets from banks, around 20% of GDP. The news prompted alarm in Britain’s pension funds, which are concerned that QE pushes down interest rates and reduces the return on their investments, but Threadneedle Street left the door ajar for a further expansion of QE2 should the economy not respond. Michael Saunders, UK economist at Citi, said the deteriorating outlook for the economy would require the Bank to “do QE on a very big scale”. He added: “We expect the cumulative total of QE (now heading to £275bn) will eventually reach £500bn or so. It may go even higher than that.” Bank of England Quantitative easing Credit crunch Economics Financial crisis Economic policy Larry Elliott Katie Allen guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …For all the talk from the various corporate media sources expressing puzzlement at exactly what the mission of the Occupy Wall Street and its sister protests around the world, you’d think that we haven’t had massive income inequality, exponentially rising costs of living with stagnant wages, high unemployment, huge multi-national corporations outsourcing and paying no taxes and all the associated symptoms of economic injustice. But just in case the rest of the media needs a refresher course, Keith Olbermann reads the first collective statement from the Occupy Wall Street participants: As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known. They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage. They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses. They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization. They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices. They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions. They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right. They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay. They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility. They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance. They have sold our privacy as a commodity. They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit. They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce. They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil. They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit. They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit. They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media. They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt. They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas. They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. * To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone. To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal. Join us and make your voices heard! Bottom line: We are the 99 percent tired of being exploited by the 1 percent.
Continue reading …For all the talk from the various corporate media sources expressing puzzlement at exactly what the mission of the Occupy Wall Street and its sister protests around the world, you’d think that we haven’t had massive income inequality, exponentially rising costs of living with stagnant wages, high unemployment, huge multi-national corporations outsourcing and paying no taxes and all the associated symptoms of economic injustice. But just in case the rest of the media needs a refresher course, Keith Olbermann reads the first collective statement from the Occupy Wall Street participants: As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known. They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage. They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses. They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization. They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices. They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions. They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right. They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay. They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility. They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance. They have sold our privacy as a commodity. They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit. They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce. They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil. They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit. They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit. They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media. They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt. They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas. They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. * To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone. To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal. Join us and make your voices heard! Bottom line: We are the 99 percent tired of being exploited by the 1 percent.
Continue reading …For all the talk from the various corporate media sources expressing puzzlement at exactly what the mission of the Occupy Wall Street and its sister protests around the world, you’d think that we haven’t had massive income inequality, exponentially rising costs of living with stagnant wages, high unemployment, huge multi-national corporations outsourcing and paying no taxes and all the associated symptoms of economic injustice. But just in case the rest of the media needs a refresher course, Keith Olbermann reads the first collective statement from the Occupy Wall Street participants: As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies. As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known. They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage. They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses. They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one’s skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization. They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices. They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions. They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right. They have consistently outsourced labor and used that outsourcing as leverage to cut workers’ healthcare and pay. They have influenced the courts to achieve the same rights as people, with none of the culpability or responsibility. They have spent millions of dollars on legal teams that look for ways to get them out of contracts in regards to health insurance. They have sold our privacy as a commodity. They have used the military and police force to prevent freedom of the press. They have deliberately declined to recall faulty products endangering lives in pursuit of profit. They determine economic policy, despite the catastrophic failures their policies have produced and continue to produce. They have donated large sums of money to politicians supposed to be regulating them. They continue to block alternate forms of energy to keep us dependent on oil. They continue to block generic forms of medicine that could save people’s lives in order to protect investments that have already turned a substantive profit. They have purposely covered up oil spills, accidents, faulty bookkeeping, and inactive ingredients in pursuit of profit. They purposefully keep people misinformed and fearful through their control of the media. They have accepted private contracts to murder prisoners even when presented with serious doubts about their guilt. They have perpetuated colonialism at home and abroad. They have participated in the torture and murder of innocent civilians overseas. They continue to create weapons of mass destruction in order to receive government contracts. * To the people of the world, We, the New York City General Assembly occupying Wall Street in Liberty Square, urge you to assert your power. Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone. To all communities that take action and form groups in the spirit of direct democracy, we offer support, documentation, and all of the resources at our disposal. Join us and make your voices heard! Bottom line: We are the 99 percent tired of being exploited by the 1 percent.
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Until recently, Huaxi was a poor farming community, typical of eastern China. Now,
Continue reading …Until recently, Huaxi was a poor farming community, typical of eastern China. Now,
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Carbon plan to be shelved over funding shortage as fears grow for Tories’ green agenda after chancellor’s ‘austerity’ remark Scottish Power is understood to have pulled the plug on a major green energy scheme at Longannet power station, Fife, close to the Firth of Forth. The threatened scrapping comes amid growing concern that David Cameron and George Osborne want to scale back the green agenda on the grounds that low carbon technology, such as carbon capture storage (CCS) and offshore wind power, cost too much in a time of austerity. The chancellor told the Conservative conference this week that if he had his way the UK would cut “carbon emissions no slower but also no faster than our fellow countries in Europe”. Scottish Power and its partners Shell and the National Grid have just completed a detailed study of the Longannet scheme. They are concerned about its commercial viability without more public backing.The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) had promised £1bn but the developers are understood to be saying they cannot proceed unless more money is provided to enable them to trial a scheme which involves burying carbon emissions in the North Sea. Both sides insist “talks are ongoing” but well-placed industry and political sources say the process is “pretty much over” and a statement is expected shortly. Jeff Chapman, chief executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, said the collapse of Longannet would be a “severe disappointment” for the wider hopes of the sector. A senior Conservative backbencher with knowledge of the energy sector told the Guardian he expected the CCS deal to collapse within weeks. He said blame lay with the Labour government, which had dithered in awarding the CCS demonstration contract until only one bidder was left, leaving the government in an impossible negotiating position. A DECC spokesman said Longannet was only one CCS project and the government still planned to choose another three that could be eligible for cash from an EU fund by the end of the year. In May DECC submitted seven UK-based CCS projects for European funding, including Longannet, but the Fife scheme was by far the most advanced and is spearheading the drive to develop the new technology in Britain. Ministers have repeatedly stressed the importance of CCS as a way to keep coal and possibly other fossil-fuel burning power stations in operation without undermining moves to cut carbon emissions and counter global warming.But they have already seen E.ON back out of plans to construct a new coal-fired power station with prototype CCS technology at Kingsnorth in Kent. At 2,400MW, Longannet is the third largest coal-fired power station in Europe and was once highlighted as Scotland’s biggest single polluter. In 2009 at the launch of a small-scale pilot study Ignacio Galán, the chairman of Scottish Power and its Spanish parent group Iberdrola, highlighted the importance of the scheme. “We believe that the UK can lead the world with CCS technology, creating new skills, jobs and opportunities for growth,” he said. “There is the potential to create an industry on the same scale as North Sea oil, and we will invest in Scotland and the UK to help realise this potential.” Charles Hendry, the energy minister, said in May that Longannet and other CCS schemes in the UK showed it was “at the cutting edge of the low carbon agenda.” But an industrialist in the department told the Guardian ministers were now privately questioning renewable power and other schemes that involved substantial public subsidies. Ministers have come under sustained lobbying from traditional power companies and energy intensive manufacturers to concentrate on lower priced, higher carbon fuels such as gas. WWF Scotland’s Director, Dr Richard Dixon, said: “This news is deeply worrying. If the UK truly wants to lead the development of this technology, as many politicians have said, then we hope that all those involved can find a way to make this project happen. It would be a major blow to international efforts to develop carbon capture and storage if this scheme were not to happen at Longannet. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) Energy Fossil fuels Carbon emissions Climate change Coal Renewable energy Scotland Green politics George Osborne Conservatives Terry Macalister Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk
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Carbon plan to be shelved over funding shortage as fears grow for Tories’ green agenda after chancellor’s ‘austerity’ remark Scottish Power is understood to have pulled the plug on a major green energy scheme at Longannet power station, Fife, close to the Firth of Forth. The threatened scrapping comes amid growing concern that David Cameron and George Osborne want to scale back the green agenda on the grounds that low carbon technology, such as carbon capture storage (CCS) and offshore wind power, cost too much in a time of austerity. The chancellor told the Conservative conference this week that if he had his way the UK would cut “carbon emissions no slower but also no faster than our fellow countries in Europe”. Scottish Power and its partners Shell and the National Grid have just completed a detailed study of the Longannet scheme. They are concerned about its commercial viability without more public backing.The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) had promised £1bn but the developers are understood to be saying they cannot proceed unless more money is provided to enable them to trial a scheme which involves burying carbon emissions in the North Sea. Both sides insist “talks are ongoing” but well-placed industry and political sources say the process is “pretty much over” and a statement is expected shortly. Jeff Chapman, chief executive of the Carbon Capture and Storage Association, said the collapse of Longannet would be a “severe disappointment” for the wider hopes of the sector. A senior Conservative backbencher with knowledge of the energy sector told the Guardian he expected the CCS deal to collapse within weeks. He said blame lay with the Labour government, which had dithered in awarding the CCS demonstration contract until only one bidder was left, leaving the government in an impossible negotiating position. A DECC spokesman said Longannet was only one CCS project and the government still planned to choose another three that could be eligible for cash from an EU fund by the end of the year. In May DECC submitted seven UK-based CCS projects for European funding, including Longannet, but the Fife scheme was by far the most advanced and is spearheading the drive to develop the new technology in Britain. Ministers have repeatedly stressed the importance of CCS as a way to keep coal and possibly other fossil-fuel burning power stations in operation without undermining moves to cut carbon emissions and counter global warming.But they have already seen E.ON back out of plans to construct a new coal-fired power station with prototype CCS technology at Kingsnorth in Kent. At 2,400MW, Longannet is the third largest coal-fired power station in Europe and was once highlighted as Scotland’s biggest single polluter. In 2009 at the launch of a small-scale pilot study Ignacio Galán, the chairman of Scottish Power and its Spanish parent group Iberdrola, highlighted the importance of the scheme. “We believe that the UK can lead the world with CCS technology, creating new skills, jobs and opportunities for growth,” he said. “There is the potential to create an industry on the same scale as North Sea oil, and we will invest in Scotland and the UK to help realise this potential.” Charles Hendry, the energy minister, said in May that Longannet and other CCS schemes in the UK showed it was “at the cutting edge of the low carbon agenda.” But an industrialist in the department told the Guardian ministers were now privately questioning renewable power and other schemes that involved substantial public subsidies. Ministers have come under sustained lobbying from traditional power companies and energy intensive manufacturers to concentrate on lower priced, higher carbon fuels such as gas. WWF Scotland’s Director, Dr Richard Dixon, said: “This news is deeply worrying. If the UK truly wants to lead the development of this technology, as many politicians have said, then we hope that all those involved can find a way to make this project happen. It would be a major blow to international efforts to develop carbon capture and storage if this scheme were not to happen at Longannet. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) Energy Fossil fuels Carbon emissions Climate change Coal Renewable energy Scotland Green politics George Osborne Conservatives Terry Macalister Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk
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