The ‘Drax 15’ plead not guilty as the state turns the screws for the UK’s most polluting power station

Fifteen people have pleaded not guilty to “going equipped to lock on”, after they were preemptively arrested in a £3 million police operation in August 2024 that stopped a peaceful climate camp against Drax, the UK’s most polluting power station.

Drax: burning the planet

Bioenergy giant Drax operates the world’s largest wood pellet-burning biomass power station near Selby, Yorkshire. The UK’s single largest carbon dioxide emitter, in 2023, it belched out 11.5m tonnes of the greenhouse gas driving the climate crisis.

Drax sources from around the world, primarily the US, Canada, and the Baltic States. In many of these places, the company is responsible for razing high-risk forests, including old growth, ancient trees.

What’s more, the company has situated its wood pellet production sites predominantly in environmental justice communities. These include majority Black communities in places like Mississippi and Louisiana. There, Drax’s facilities emit large amounts of pollutants that cause respiratory and pulmonary health impacts.

The corporation has repeatedly made the bold claim that it produces renewable energy. Unsurprisingly, this does not wash. Because as it turns out, cutting down forests is not so sustainable. On top of this, burning wood pellets produces more carbon emissions than the dirtiest of fossil fuels: coal. Not so green then either.

However, because the UK government counts woody biomass ‘carbon neutral’ (it’s clearly not), it throws enormous renewable energy subsidies at Drax anyway. These amount to over £600m a year. Little wonder then that the company raked in over a billion in profits for 2023 alone.

Courts and cops complicit

It was in the context of all this that a group of climate protesters planned to take the major greenwashing corporation to task. Predictably however, the criminal justice instruments of the state closed ranks to shield Drax from peaceful, public scrutiny and protest.

First, the company sought an injunction against them ahead of their planned ‘climate camp’ at the site. On 25 July, the High Court granted this draconian injunction to Drax. It meant that protesters would be relegated to a small strip of land near the power station. Despite this, protest groups proceeded in preparations for their peaceful demonstration undeterred.

Then, on 8 August, North Yorkshire police, led by the Met, conducted a raid.

It involved 1,070 officers from 39 forces of the 44 forces in Britain, and the seizing of accessible toilets, wheelchair trackway, and tents. This happened in the same week the police claimed their resources were too “stretched” to provide protection for asylum seekers being attacked in their accommodation by far right rioters.

They pre-emptively arrested 22 climate protesters purportedly for conspiracy to interfere with key national infrastructure. Of course, this was before the protesters had done anything. As the Canary’s HG reported:

A protester who has been helping to coordinate the camp told the Canary that North Yorkshire Police are essentially acting as Drax’s own private security firm. Repeatedly they said they are not opposed to peaceful protests. However, they have still taken away the kit the protesters were using to ensure the camp was both peaceful and safe. Essentially, they are being silenced for speaking out against greenwashing.

North Yorkshire Police’s response only made this complicity glaringly apparent.

Drax: protected by the state

This policing operation stopped the planned climate camp from starting. Over 100 organisations, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, condemned Drax for “using the police as their own private security”.

Laurie, who was arrested in a van containing wheelchair trackway on 8 August, said:

The fact I am facing charges for carrying wheelchair trackway to a climate camp is ridiculous, and shows the power Drax holds over the government, police and courts. Corporations like Drax can use the police as security and the state for billions in pocket money, all while our public services like schools and hospitals continue to crumble. We need to shut down Drax and take the power back from their shareholders.

Kat Hobbs, a spokesperson for Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) said:

The Drax mass arrest was a clear abuse of police power. Netpol’s new “State of Protest” report documents an alarming package of state-supported measures designed to impose social control on protests, and it documents the growing use of conspiracy charges against protesters. It is a worrying symptom how emboldened the police feel by the political rhetoric demonising climate protesters that they targeted Reclaim the Power. While major polluters such as Drax are allowed to continue their dirty business, the police are shutting down protest before it can even happen by confiscating access ramps and compost toilets to stop climate protesters from gathering.

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