Britain blew millions backing power stations to burn wood pellets that are as bad for environment as coal

BRITAIN has squandered £450million by subsidising power stations to burn American wood pellets that are as bad for the environment as the coal they used before, a damning report found on Wednesday. 

Chopping down trees and shipping wood across the Atlantic to the UK’s power stations creates more greenhouse gases than simply burning coal - which is also cheaper - according to researchers.

Green subsidies for wood pellets were championed by Chris Huhne when he was Liberal Democrat energy and climate change secretary in the coalition government.

Mr Huhne, 62, who was jailed in 2013 for perverting the course of justice, is now European chairman of Zilkha Biomass, a US supplier of wood pellets.

The report was written by Duncan Brack, a former special adviser to Mr Huhne, for think tank Chatham House.

It’s claimed £450m was lost over the failed green power programme, which revealed details of the document last night.

Mr Brack concluded: “It is ridiculous for the same kind of subsidies that go to genuine zero-carbon technologies, like solar and wind, to go to biomass use that might be increasing carbon emissions.

“It’s not a good use of money.

“For any biomass facility that is burning wood for energy, unless they are only burning stuff like saw-mill residues or post-consumer waste, their activities will be increasing carbon emissions in the atmosphere for decades or centuries.

"We shouldn’t be subsidising that.”

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