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Power station scraps controversial plan to become Europe's biggest gas-fired plant Lisa Holland, climate change correspondent Drax power station in North Yorkshire has scrapped controversial plans to swap coal-burning units for gas turbines after opposition from environmental groups. © PA Drax is the biggest renewable power generator in the UK The plans would have made Drax - which already uses biomass and produces 6% of the UK's electricity - the biggest gas-fired power plant in Europe. In February last year, Drax announced it would close its two remaining coal units by Ma...

Dewley Hill: Newcastle City Council blocks controversial coal mine Climate campaigners have expressed relief after an application to turn more than 250 acres of greenbelt land near Newcastle into an opencast coal mine was blocked. Image: Defend Dewley Hill The application for the Dewley Hill project was submitted earlier this year by Banks Mining, which argued that the project would provide essential fuel to the UK’s steel and cement sector. Its plans were built around extracting up to 800,000 tonnes of coal and 400,000 tonnes of fireclay each year. Banks Mining also pointed to the job crea...

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3 months old This article is more than 3 months old Friends of the Earth calls for end to such excavation in England after unanimous decision on Dewley Hill site Activists from the Extinction Rebellion climate action group gather to block the entrance to the Bradley opencast coal mine in the Pont Valley in County Durham earlier this year. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images Activists from the Extinction Rebellion climate action group gather to block the entrance to the Bradley opencast coal mine in the Pont Valley in County Durham earlier this year. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP via Gett...

Developers behind a proposed new coal mine on the outskirts of Ponteland say it is “rather mystifying” that the hugely contentious plans face rejection. City councillors will decide next week whether Banks Mining can extract 800,000 tonnes of coal and 400,000 tonnes of fireclay from green belt land at Dewley Hill, near Stamfordham Road and the A69. It emerged last week that the local authority’s planning department is advising that the scheme should be rejected on Friday – saying it would be “inappropriate” in the green belt and “cannot be considered ‘environmentally ac...