Local MP, Nick Ainger, has been urged to oppose the "wasteful and damaging" LNG power station proposed at Pembroke and instead to back efficient power stations that use both electricity and heat. Pembrokeshire Friends of the Earth has written to the MP arguing that the LNG power station proposed for Pembroke would be inefficient, emit too much carbon dioxide and discharge excessive amounts of warm water into the Haven. The group say that all of these problems could be overcome by using combined heat and power (CHP) stations, which are widely used on the continent. The Welsh Assembly Government's own advisors on the environment, the Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), have also objected to the power station proposal. Last Friday, CCW wrote a formal letter of objection to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR), stating that the discharge of warm waters to the Milford Haven waterway would harm an important marine ecosystem. Pembrokeshire Friends of the Earth say that this problem would be averted by using the waste heat in CHP power stations sited close to industrial locations, such as the two oil refineries and the two LNG terminals. Climate change campaigner for Pembrokeshire Friends of the Earth, Gordon James, said: "The scientific evidence of climate change is increasingly worrying. It is clear that its impacts are occurring sooner and are more severe than anticipated. If we are to prevent catastrophic consequences we have to use energy as efficiently as possible. "We have estimated that over half of the energy content of the gas extracted in the Middle East would be wasted by turning it into electricity at the proposed Pembroke power station. The heat wasted at the power station would be equivalent to over half the electricity demand in Wales. "Yet much of this waste heat could be used locally in the two LNG terminals to re-gasify the LNG from the tankers and to supply heat to the two oil refineries. These combined heat and power (CHP) systems are quite normal practice in countries such as Denmark. "Using CHP would solve the problem of waste heat being discharged into the Milford Haven waterway, which the Countryside Council for Wales believes would have such an adverse impact on the important marine ecosystem that it has formally objected to the power station proposal. This is an extremely significant objection that casts considerable doubt on the future of the power station. "The power station would emit almost six million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide, the main climate- changing gas. CHP systems would emit significantly less per unit of energy. "Power stations are the largest single source of carbon dioxide emissions in Wales, and emissions from this sector have risen by a quarter since 1990. We are heading in totally the wrong direction by increasing these emissions when every effort should be made to reduce them."
