Following announcements Drax earned over one billion pounds in 2024 [1], activists have staged a protest calling for no more public money to burning trees for electricity.
Drax Group, owner of eponymous wood burning Drax Power Station, has made record profits in the same month the government granted them two billion in bill payer subsidies [2]. Activists from Axe Drax and Extinction Rebellion held a burning banner that read “Our Money, Our Future” outside the power station, highlighting their anger at Labour giving any more money to Drax.
Rosie, from Axe Drax said:
“It is perverse hypocrisy that the same private company can have billions in subsidies from our bills pledged in the same month they announce over a billion in earnings, all while our genuine public services continue to crumble. We should not be lining the pockets for Drax’s shareholders while seeing cruel cuts to winter fuel payment and disability benefits.”
Helen Hart from Extinction Rebellion Leeds said:
“Burning trees in power stations for six more years is not a climate solution. It’s a climate crime that’s taking a torch to our future. If that wasn’t bad enough, this madness is being underwritten by billions of pounds that is being added to our energy bills, which is ending up in the pockets of mega-rich shareholders when it is badly needed to fix our broken public services.
“Time and again we are seeing this government failing to stand up to powerful interests and do the right thing. That’s why we need a citizens’ assembly that is independent and made up of a cross-section of ordinary people.”
ENDS
Contact: media@axedrax.uk
Spokespeople available on request.
Photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1k3aZls_uKa8y7t0_izDQcb79HFB0Bfr_?usp=drive_link
Axe Drax
Axe Drax is a UK based grassroots network that actively opposes Drax through disruptive direct action. We campaign for an end to Drax’s subsidies, due to the environmental, societal and planetary impacts of burning trees for energy. We are building a broad based network, working in solidarity with frontline communities to effectively confront the environmentally destructive biomass industry and the social and economic forces driving climate change.
Drax
Drax Power Station, located near Selby in Yorkshire, is the world’s biggest woody biomass power station and the UK’s single largest carbon emitter. Drax sources from around the world, primarily the US, Canada, and the Baltic States. Drax’s wood pellet production sites, predominantly located in environmental justice communities, emit large amounts of pollutants, such as PM10, PM2.5 and VOCs which are linked to respiratory and pulmonary health impacts. Woody biomass is counted as carbon neutral by the UK Government, allowing Drax to receive renewable energy subsidies (CfDs and ROCs).
Website: https://axedrax.uk
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[1] https://www.drax.com/financial-news/full-year-results-for-the-twelve-months-ended-31-december-2024/