Here we go again…

August 28th, 2008

Views: 745

Posted by ChrisG at 4:11 pm

Right about now, over in a very beautiful bit of Gloucestershire, some no doubt very nervous National Grid employees are telling an audience of no doubt very pissed off people just why they’ve decided that the only place suitable for building a very large chunk of above-ground gas infrastructure is very close indeed to the site they were denied permission to build on last December by the Secretary of State.

National Grid spokeswoman Caroline Davidson said it had carefully examined a 10km area from the existing Tirley gas plant before opting for the two sites. She said: “We’ve been working since the start of the year to look for suitable sites.”

The way that’s phrased, it sounds like they’ve gone out of their way to do the right thing. In fact, the 10km radius was stipulated by a very damning planning judgement that went against NG, one which adjudged their methods of site selection to be utterly inadequate.

Looks like NG is playing the typical multinational’s game in such circumstances: keep banging in variants on the same proposal, as the options within the planning process gradually get exhausted and everyone opposing you gets too worn down to go on fighting. In this case, they’re playing the long game against the ongoing possibility of a full public enquiry into the South Wales gas pipeline and Milford Haven LNG terminals, which is one possible outcome of an impending decision from the European Commission.