Nigel Adams has received £62,411 (HERE) from the biomass industry, an industry that he has championed relentlessly for years. It certainly looks like money well spent since Drax is now burning millions of tonnes of the stuff and releasing the equivalent in particulate matter to that of about three million diesel cars (HERE) while picking up hundreds of millions of pounds in public subsidy.
Mr Adams is the man who said (HERE) in December 2015, “The closure of Kellingley is a tragedy for everyone who works there,” blaming “successive governments’ decarbonisation policies along with cheaper coal imports”. Modesty obviously prevented him mentioning his own part in it as an MP pressing for biomass to replace coal. Two years earlier in March 2013 in parliament he had asked a Minister (Greg Clark) to commit to converting Drax and Eggborough to biomass. Here's what he said:
Is the Minister fully committed—by which I mean not just words, but urgent action—to conversion of coal-fired power stations, such as Drax and Eggborough in my constituency, to biomass, which is sustainable? (HERE Column 460).
Mr Adams is the man who said (HERE) in December 2015, “The closure of Kellingley is a tragedy for everyone who works there,” blaming “successive governments’ decarbonisation policies along with cheaper coal imports”. Modesty obviously prevented him mentioning his own part in it as an MP pressing for biomass to replace coal. Two years earlier in March 2013 in parliament he had asked a Minister (Greg Clark) to commit to converting Drax and Eggborough to biomass. Here's what he said:
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| Nigel Adams in his day job |
He has spoken on many occasions in parliament about this subject, always pressing for subsidies and more biomass conversions. He even secured an entire debate on the topic on March 20th 2013 describing Selby as soon becoming, "the renewable energy capital of Europe". He is registered as the chairman of the all-party group on biomass (HERE), a group which has a consultant paid for by Drax Power Station, so clearly very impartial. On April 27th 2016 he told fellow MPs "Biomass is simply the quickest and most cost-effective way to get coal off the grid" (HERE Column 617WH).
Greenpeace, which collected the figures, say that Drax and Eggborough have paid for expensive trips to the USA including £8578 for a conference at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New Orleans and £4950 for a five day trip to Miami where Nigel delivered the keynote speech at the Fontainebleau Hotel. I should add that Nigel Adams doesn't dispute the figures but simply says they were all properly declared. The have to be declared so we can all draw our own conclusions - which we will.
Our other local MP Andrew Percy visited Canada in October last year (see HERE) to see for himself how wood pellets are made but there is no declaration in his register of interests yet so I assume this was an official government trip in his position as a junior minister. That or he has forgotten to register it.
Greenpeace, which collected the figures, say that Drax and Eggborough have paid for expensive trips to the USA including £8578 for a conference at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New Orleans and £4950 for a five day trip to Miami where Nigel delivered the keynote speech at the Fontainebleau Hotel. I should add that Nigel Adams doesn't dispute the figures but simply says they were all properly declared. The have to be declared so we can all draw our own conclusions - which we will.
Our other local MP Andrew Percy visited Canada in October last year (see HERE) to see for himself how wood pellets are made but there is no declaration in his register of interests yet so I assume this was an official government trip in his position as a junior minister. That or he has forgotten to register it.
