Green tycoon bankrolling anti-fracking protesters so he can promote his rival wind turbine business
Former New Age traveller has made donations to groups urging their backers to use his firm
A GREEN tycoon is bankrolling anti-fracking protesters so he can promote his rival wind turbine business, we can reveal.
Former New Age traveller Dale Vince, 55, has made donations to groups urging their backers to switch power supplies to his firm, Ecotricity.
Vince, said to be worth £100 million, even paid £10,000 in court costs for one group that fought an appeal against frackers.
It comes just days after oil giants Cuadrilla won a landmark victory to drill for shale gas in Lancashire and as activists ramp up efforts to prevent fracking exploration.
There are around 90 anti-fracking groups in the UK and it is not clear how many have had funding from Vince, who donated £250,000 to the Labour Party last year.
But a string of them are known to have taken Ecotricity’s money.
One environmentalist claims her group, Frack Free Somerset, was offered “financial help” by Ecotricity in return for advertising space.
The woman, who did not want naming, said “If Ecotricity really cared, why couldn’t a grants scheme be anonymous?
“It’s not, because their primary purpose isn’t to support our movement or social change.
“They have Pound signs in their eyes.”
B&B owner Claire Smith, 53, who lives next to the approved Lancashire drilling site between Blackpool and Preston, said: “The normal man on the street doesn’t have a hope of making an informed decision while money is pouring into the anti-fracking lobby from people with vested interests.”
Frack Free Balcombe, in West Sussex, says it received £10,000 from Ecotricity for a legal case.
RELATED STORIES
Resident Action on Fylde Fracking (RAFF), in Lancashire, has Ecotricity’s ad on its website.
The promo says RAFF will get £60 for every person who switches their electricity and gas supplies to Ecotricity.
Vince, whose break came when he provided a wind-powered telephone service at the Glastonbury festival, lives in a castle in Gloucestershire with second wife Kate.
Five years ago he launched Britain's first and fastest £750,000 electric supercar, party funded by the taxpayer, although his transport of choice is a £10,000 electric motorbike.
His firm, based in Stroud, owns 19 wind farms and two solar parks.
He had to pay ex-wife Kathleen Wyatt £300,000 in June after she launched a £1.9 million maintenance demand 25 years after they split.
Vince, who has previously offered PR help to every British anti-fracking group, said last night: “We have funded a couple of anti-fracking groups to help them with legal actions and have affinity deals with a few more.”