Spending watchdog warns £6.5bn in funding may not offer value for public money amid ongoing sustainability concerns
A government spending watchdog has questioned the value of the multi-billion pound subsidies granted to the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire – and said that plans to hand over billions more may not represent value for money.
The government has provided about £22bn of public money to businesses and households that burn biomass pellets as fuel over the past three years, including £6.5bn for the owner of the Drax plant.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/24/2025 - 18:01
04/24/2025 - 18:00
NAO finds regulatory gaps have enabled overspending on infrastructure building while not improving sewage works
Water companies have been getting away with failures to improve sewage works and overspending because of regulatory problems, a damning report by the government’s spending watchdog has found.
Firms have overspent on infrastructure building, the National Audit Office (NAO) found, with some of these costs being added to consumers’ bills. The Guardian this week reported Ofwat and the independent water commission are investigating water firms for spending up to 10 times as much on their sewage works and piping as comparable countries.
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04/24/2025 - 16:30
Employees of water firms who obstruct investigations into spills could face jail under new rules that come into force on Friday
Water company bosses have entirely escaped punishment for covering up illegal sewage spills, government figures show, as ministers prepare to bring in a new law threatening them with up to two years in prison for doing so.
Only three people have ever been prosecuted for obstructing the Environment Agency in its investigations into sewage spills, officials said, and none received even a fine.
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04/24/2025 - 13:22
Speech made clear prime minister sees renewable energy as core to UK’s future prosperity and national security
Britain will go “all out” for a low-carbon future and accelerate the push to net zero instead of slowing down as some have demanded, the prime minister said on Thursday.
In his strongest declaration yet of support for the net zero agenda, Sir Keir Starmer told a conference in London of more than 60 countries that tackling the climate crisis and bolstering energy security were “in the DNA of my government”.
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04/24/2025 - 13:20
Latest denial of disaster funding comes as Trump has repeatedly stated he wants to eliminate Fema
US politics live – latest updates
Donald Trump has denied federal disaster relief funds to the people of Arkansas, which saw dozens of people die from a series of deadly tornadoes last month, as legislators plead for him to reconsider.
More than 40 people have been found dead after a series of tornadoes and severe storms hit Arkansas and neighboring states Mississippi and Missouri in March, according to CNN.
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04/24/2025 - 13:05
Minister says incident ‘opened up a nerve in the country’ as new questions raised over ownership of land it stood on
The Forestry Commission has started an investigation into the controversial felling of an ancient oak near a Toby Carvery car park in north London amid new questions about ownership of the land on which it stood.
The investigation was announced by the junior environment minister Helene Hayman, who said the felling of the 500-year-old tree in Enfield earlier this month was “horrifying”.
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04/24/2025 - 10:10
Critics fear decision to list Brazil-based firm JBS, long linked to Amazon’s deforestation, will add to the climate crisis
Environmental groups are outraged that the world’s biggest meatpacking company, JBS, which has long been linked to Amazon’s deforestation, has received approval from US authorities to list on the New York Stock Exchange.
The decision, announced on Tuesday by the Securities Exchange Commission, follows reports that JBS subsidiary Pilgrim’s was the biggest donor to the inauguration committee of Donald Trump. Since taking power, Trump has reduced the independence of the SEC and other agencies, demanding their work be “controlled” by the president.
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04/24/2025 - 08:45
Department cites Trump’s ‘energy emergency’ declaration to expedite permissions from multiple years to 28 days
US politics live – latest updates
The US interior department has announced plans to radically fast track permitting for projects involving fossil fuels and mining citing Donald Trump’s ‘energy emergency’ declaration that many experts say does not exist.
The move would reduce to a maximum of 28 days permitting procedures that previously could take multiple years, the department said late Wednesday.
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04/24/2025 - 08:00
Decision will affect mostly low-income Alabama residents as DoJ dismisses agreement over untreated sewage as DEI
The Trump administration has killed a landmark civil rights settlement requiring Alabama to address raw sewage pollution in majority-Black, residential areas south-west of Montgomery, dismissing it as an “illegal” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agreement.
The decision could condemn low-income people in Lowndes county, about 40 miles south-west of Montgomery, to indefinitely continue living with no or failing sanitation infrastructure.
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04/24/2025 - 07:04
Birds in their 40s wintering on mudflats of the Wash received leg rings in early 1980s
If your ears are assaulted by the shrill piping calls of an excitable bird on the east coast of England, fear not: it’s probably an oystercatcher experiencing a midlife crisis.
Two of the handsome black and white birds with bright red-orange bills have been found to be the oldest known oystercatchers ever recorded in Britain, clocking up at least 41 and 43 years on the mudflats of the Wash.
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