Cornerstone Planning

Development consent for biomass burning at Yorkshire plant breached regulations, letter before claim argues

The Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero is facing a judicial review challenge after giving development consent for the burning of biomass at a Yorkshire power plant.

Biofuelwatch UK said that the development consent handed to Drax Power Ltd to continue burning biomass at its power plant on a Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) basis goes against the 2017 Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations.

In a letter before claim, the group argued that the decision breached the regulations as it failed to take into account or assess likely harmful environmental effects.

The decision means that the plant can generate electricity by burning almost entirely imported wood pellets, attracting large government subsidies until 2035.

According to the challenge, the Energy Secretary failed to comply with EIA regulations for the following reasons:

  • By zero-rating the carbon (CO2) emissions from biomass burning, i.e. treating it as producing no greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, despite the obvious and indisputable fact that the combustion of biomass releases huge quantities of GHG emissions
  • By excluding the CO2 emissions from the units to be fitted with the carbon capture technology
  • By treating the works to construct and operate transport and storage facilities for captured carbon as a separate project.

Katy Brown, Bioenergy campaigner with Biofuelwatch UK, said the decison to accept Drax's claim that its BECCS scheme would result in a net reduction in emissions was "extremely dangerous and irresponsible given we are at a tipping point in the climate crisis".

She argued that the method of cutting down trees and shipping them around the world to be burnt in power stations "can never be a climate solution".

Brown added: "Every large-scale coal and gas power plant equipped with Carbon Capture Storage has failed to meet its target for carbon capture performance. It is irrational to think that Carbon Capture Storage on a wood burning power plant can be more successful."

Estelle Dehon KC of Cornerstone Barristers and Ben Mitchell of 11KBW represent Biofuelwatch UK. They are instructed by Rowan Smith of Leigh Day. 

Smith said: "The Government claims that it can ignore greenhouse gas emissions from the operation of Drax simply because an entirely separate regime says those emissions are reported in the country from where the biomass is imported. Our client's arguments seek to expose that legal fiction.

"They also shine a light on whether the Government has minimised the environmental impacts by treating the transport and storage of the captured carbon as a separate project. We hope the Court will agree that these arguments warrant a full hearing."

Drax Power Ltd and the Department for Energy and Net Zero have been approached for comment.

Adam Carey