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@malumbu as your questions would take us off topic on so many tangents, I will defer my response to a more appropriate thread. -
@vladi it would be good to hear your views on my comments (a) the damage to society of austerity and (b) how poorly the Tories handled our economy prior (and post if you like) Covid Do you believe in climate change and if so what should we be doing? I'd disgusted by Badenock aping Reform. -
By heartblock · Posted
The Labour Party is a poor advert for the Labour Party. I think this council just reflects the national picture. -
Covid certainly was a big factor in creating the debt burden however the Govt continues to expand the hole by giving crazy subsidies to suppliers of so-called "low carbon" electricity eg wind turbine farms, solar panels and worst of all - Drax power station. According to the Renewable Energy Foundation, the UK currently spends around £25.8 billion per year on renewable electricity subsidies, covering both direct and indirect schemes. Drax gets just shy of £1 billion a year to use import & burn wood pellets which are produced in a highly energy consumptive process. Wood pellets used by Drax are produced through a multi-stage process that converts wood material into dense, energy-rich fuel. The raw material typically comes from, offcuts, and sawmill by-products rather than high-value timber. Logs are first collected from forests across the U.S. South and West Coast, ‘ At pellet plants, the wood is debarked and chipped into small pieces before being dried to reduce moisture content. The drying process often uses waste wood as a heat source to improve efficiency and lower emissions. Once dried, the wood chips are milled into a fine powder, then compressed at high pressure through a die to form small cylindrical pellets, each around 6–8 mm in diameter. The natural lignin in the wood binds the pellets together, eliminating the need for chemical additives. After production, pellets are cooled, screened to remove dust and fines, and stored in large silos. They are then loaded into trucks or railcars and transported across the United States from west to east to dedicated export terminals.. At these terminals, pellets are conveyed into covered storage domes or silos to protect them from moisture, since wet pellets can disintegrate and pose safety risks. From there, bulk carriers transport the pellets across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom. Drax even had to develop specialized port and rail infrastructure to handle pellet imports , including large storage domes at Immingham and direct rail links to its power station. It's no wonder wed have the highest energy costs in all of Europe!
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