ClientEarth mulling legal challenge to consent for gas turbines at Drax

Opponents of Drax’s plans to build new gas turbines at its North Yorkshire plant are mulling a legal challenge to Andrea Leadsom’s decision to grant consent to the project.

ClientEarth, the environmental law firm that spearheaded the successful legal battle to get the government to toughen up its clean air strategy said it is “exploring legal options” following last Friday’s announcement that the secretary of state for business and energy has given the go ahead to Drax’s application.

The London-based practice, which acted on behalf of opponents of Drax’s application during the public inquiry that paved the way for last week’s decision, expressed concern that the scheme is out of kilter with the government’s wider climate change targets.

Sam Hunter-Jones, a lawyer in ClientEarth’s climate accountability team, said: “By failing to explain how this emissions-intensive gas project squares with the UK’s carbon targets and its clean growth strategy, Drax is asking the public to face a carbon budget blowout, a huge stranded asset requiring propping up by the taxpayer, or a combination of the two.”

In her decision, Leadsom overturned the recommendation of a planning inspector that Drax’s application should not be granted consent.

The project is designed to replace the two remaining coal units at the Selby plant with two combined-cycle gas turbine units, each comprising two 600MW gas turbines and a 600MW steam turbine. In total, it would create 3.6GW of new high-efficiency gas generation.

The planning inspector had ruled that the repowering would conflict with the decarbonisation objectives outlined in the Energy National Policy Statement (NPS) and undermine the Government’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as set out in the Climate Change Act 2008.

However, Leadsom’s justification for granting consent drew on the support in the NPS for the “vital role” fossil fuel power stations play a in providing reliable electricity supply and back-up capacity for intermittent renewable generation

The decision letter also stated that increased carbon emissions and the net-zero goal are not sufficient justification for turning down developments that otherwise accord with the NPS.

Leadsom agreed with the inspector that Drax should leave space for the addition of carbon capture equipment even though the company told the public inquiry into the project that insisting on its installation would make the project unviable and that the technology will not be ready for roll out until the 2030s.

The decision was handled through the Development Consent Order process set up to deal with pieces of infrastructure projects deemed to be of national importance.