Drax Power Limited: Ofgem Investigation

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)]

My Lords, is not the problem, as the noble Baroness has said, that the idea that cutting down trees in North America and California, turning them into pellets, dragging them across the Atlantic Ocean using diesel-powered ships, shipping them across the country and then burning them at Drax is somehow saving the planet is mad?

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, I realise that it sometimes sounds counterintuitive. None the less, the carbon emitted during the supply-chain process, and in the process at Drax and places like it, is netted off by the growth in forestry, which absorbs the carbon. That is a well-accepted international approach. It produces 2.6 gigawatts at Drax, 4% of our electricity generation in this country, with over 2,500 people employed in the local region, and it is classified as renewable.