EarthFirst! Lowlands blocks coalplant
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Saturday morning a collective of twenty Groenfront (Dutch EarthFirst!)
activists blocked the coal conveyor-belt to a plant owned by the German
energy giant E.on on the Maasvlakte harbor area near Rotterdam.
December 8 has been announced as an international action day against
the coal industry. The growing number of coal-fired power plants
worldwide and in the Netherlands is one of the biggest threats to
climate. Secondly, this action is part of the protest against the plans
for a new E.on coal-fired plant, right next to the existing one in the
Rotterdam harbor.
activists have locked themselves to the conveyor-belt which transports
the coals to the powerplant. Unfortunately that won't mean they'll shut
down the entire power plant. There's enough supply at the furnace to
keep it running for a while. The activists plan to stay as long as
possible. They demand the cancellation of the construction plans for
the new E.on coal power plant.
There
are plans to build five new coal-fired power plants in the Netherlands.
E.on is making concerted effort to be the first company to start
building next spring. These new power plants do not correspond at all
with the climate-ambitions of the Netherlands to reduce CO2 emissions.
Coal is the most polluting energy source possible, because apart from
CO2, the emissions also include other greenhouse gases, heavy metals
and radioactive particles. Building a new power plant will undermine
any attempts to solve the climate crisis. The building of new
coal-fired plants blocks the development of sustainable energy sources.
As dirty coal power fills the energy grid, there will be no space for
renewables such as solar and wind. Available investments labeled for
sustainable energy will only be used for carbon capture and storage.
The company E.on's PR campaign is using pretty words like 'Clean Coals' and 'Capture Ready preparation' to defend their plans. Both terms have been proved to be nothing but hot air.
mining is extremely polluting; mining areas in the United States,
Columbia, Indonesia and South Africa suffer from severe water and soil
pollution. In the coal mines, miners are being exploited and annually
thousands of people die as a result of mining disasters.
term 'Capture Ready preparation' used by E.on is a fraud. A
carbon-capturing power plant will use between 24 and 40 percent of its
produced energy on the capture process. It must therefore burn more
coal to provide the same amount of output energy than a non
carbon-capturing power plant.
type of plant E.on is about to build has proven to be extremely
unsuitable for carbon storage. The fumes released by this specific type
of plant are complicated
and expensive to treat. E.on's promise to start capturing carbon 'as
soon as it is technically and commercially viable' is therefore
completely pointless and has only resulted in an empty spot on the
blueprints, reserved for a future capturing installation.
you cannot burn coal as an energy source, what then? Besides the
possibility of decentralised and truly sustainable energy, it is most
of all necessary to reduce our energy consumption. Sustainable power
has its limits as well. If we want to prevent running out of natural
resources and the ensuing climate disaster, we'll somehow have to find
a different way of living, one that that won't include dogmatic
economic growth.
Groenfront! action is part of the 'Shrink or Sink' campaign, fighting
both the climate and energy crisis and rapidly decreasing biodiversity.
Direct action against the construction of new coal-fired plants is one
of the main topics of the campaign.
Developments of the action
9.00 this morning no coal could be moved into the power plant. E.on has
arranged for a truck to move a small amount of coal to the plant.
plant management asked for a talk behind closed doors with the
activists. The activists turned down the offer. They do want to talk,
but in public and about on e.on's climate policy, building new coal
plants. E.on refused this offer.
first activists on the power plant were arrested around 14.45. By 15.30
the last climber had been arrested and the activists in locked onto
machinery had been handcuffed to the machinery structures by the police.
police has started to remove the people locked on to the machinery by
16.30. A special unit as been called in from The Hague.
before 18.00 the police had removed all activists from the machinery.
Everyone that entered the area of the plant has been arrested. They
have been charged with trespass, not abeying a police order and
something else which is not clear yet. The outside crew has not been
arrested. The activists have seriously hindered the operation of the
plant from 9.00 until 18.00.
A series of pictures of the action can be seen at indymedia.nl/nl/2007/12/48901.shtml and groenfront.nl.
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