National Grid: Facing Fines, Refusal of Appeal

January 23rd, 2007

Views: 470

Posted by ChrisG at 11:25 am

A friend emails me more news on the effects of the various disputes over the South Wales gas pipeline, which are now gathering force following several planning defeats for National Grid.

National Grid faces penalties of up to £36m ($70.6m) as Britain’s biggest gas infrastructure project for decades risks falling behind schedule owing to planning delays and protests.

However, there is an escape clause here, as the Power Engineering article notes, which relies only on the Government being honest with us and confirming what everyone campaigning against the pipeline has been pointing out for ages – namely, that the company’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a very shoddy document indeed. A decision on the acceptabilty of the EIA by the Department of Trade and Industry has been delayed, following a large number of submissions from interested parties regarding the document’s manifold insufficiencies, convenient omissions, and occasional distortions. If the DTI refuses to approve it, then NG will gain a breathing space in which to think about their compromised position.

Further, the current appeal being lodged by National Grid against the Forest of Dean local authority’s rejection of their planning application will (to go by the PDF summary posted here) be nothing but an affirmation of their initial proposal, and thereby of their dubious EIA. It is difficult to see how they will succeed in their appeal on this basis – especially as strong, well-argued submissions to the appeal enquiry, detailing once again exactly how the EIA is a fundamentally worthless document, are already being sent in by those who will be locally affected.