TEESSIDE SCAFFOLDER
Well-known member
MPs backing Teesside bid for £1bn CCS deal
by Kelley Price, Evening GazetteApr 4 2012.
TEESSIDE MPs have backed the region’s bid for a £1bn carbon capture project - but the Government has been told it must increase its support.
A £1bn competition to help commercialise CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technology in the UK has been launched and campaigners for Teesside’s bid - Teesside Low Carbon - say the area’s cluster of heavy polluters would create extra revenue for the Government, while attracting more companies to the UK if it won.
Energy minister Charles Hendry said yesterday the Government would consider the needs of industry when choosing their winner, which is a change of approach after ministers abandoned a CCS demonstrator project last Autumn.
Bosses behind the Teesside project have applauded the crucial policy switch, which they say strengthens Teesside’s case.
The Teesside Low Carbon project would see a “clean coal” power station built on Teesside, creating enough green electricity for more than 500,000 households.
It would also pipe harmful greenhouse gases from the area’s biggest polluters hundreds of miles offshore and store them in vast subsea voids.
Around 250 direct jobs would be created, with a workforce of more than 1,000 involved in its construction over a four-year period. It would also underpin hundreds more jobs in Teesside’s heavy industries, as high carbon taxes begin to bear down.
The consortium behind the project is made up of global energy leaders including BOC, International Power, National Grid, Fairfield Energy, Premier Oil and Progressive Energy.
MP for Redcar and Cleveland, Ian Swales, who is meeting with BIS ministers this month to talk about the project, said: “Assisting in CCS infrastructure is a good deal for the Government as it will improve the UK’s attractiveness as a place to invest and bring in extra revenue, particularly through enhanced oil recovery in the North sea.
“CCS would make Teesside a world-class location for industrial and energy investment.
“We need to lobby hard to make sure industries such as steel and chemicals are taken into account.”
But Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Tom Blenkinsop said the Government must “up its cash offer” if the expensive and as-yet unproven technology is to be realised.
“A successful plant on Teesside would provide both direct operating and construction jobs and also possibly open up a market in similar plants for export abroad.
“CCS is potentially a winning combination for the UK and for areas like ours - but the Government have to think again about the cash they are putting on the table. It is ludicrous, in the old saying, to ‘spoil the ship for a halfpenny worth of tar’, but this, I am afraid, is what the Government are doing.”
by Kelley Price, Evening GazetteApr 4 2012.
TEESSIDE MPs have backed the region’s bid for a £1bn carbon capture project - but the Government has been told it must increase its support.
A £1bn competition to help commercialise CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technology in the UK has been launched and campaigners for Teesside’s bid - Teesside Low Carbon - say the area’s cluster of heavy polluters would create extra revenue for the Government, while attracting more companies to the UK if it won.
Energy minister Charles Hendry said yesterday the Government would consider the needs of industry when choosing their winner, which is a change of approach after ministers abandoned a CCS demonstrator project last Autumn.
Bosses behind the Teesside project have applauded the crucial policy switch, which they say strengthens Teesside’s case.
The Teesside Low Carbon project would see a “clean coal” power station built on Teesside, creating enough green electricity for more than 500,000 households.
It would also pipe harmful greenhouse gases from the area’s biggest polluters hundreds of miles offshore and store them in vast subsea voids.
Around 250 direct jobs would be created, with a workforce of more than 1,000 involved in its construction over a four-year period. It would also underpin hundreds more jobs in Teesside’s heavy industries, as high carbon taxes begin to bear down.
The consortium behind the project is made up of global energy leaders including BOC, International Power, National Grid, Fairfield Energy, Premier Oil and Progressive Energy.
MP for Redcar and Cleveland, Ian Swales, who is meeting with BIS ministers this month to talk about the project, said: “Assisting in CCS infrastructure is a good deal for the Government as it will improve the UK’s attractiveness as a place to invest and bring in extra revenue, particularly through enhanced oil recovery in the North sea.
“CCS would make Teesside a world-class location for industrial and energy investment.
“We need to lobby hard to make sure industries such as steel and chemicals are taken into account.”
But Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland MP Tom Blenkinsop said the Government must “up its cash offer” if the expensive and as-yet unproven technology is to be realised.
“A successful plant on Teesside would provide both direct operating and construction jobs and also possibly open up a market in similar plants for export abroad.
“CCS is potentially a winning combination for the UK and for areas like ours - but the Government have to think again about the cash they are putting on the table. It is ludicrous, in the old saying, to ‘spoil the ship for a halfpenny worth of tar’, but this, I am afraid, is what the Government are doing.”