GET IT E.ON

Across the UK climate change organisations and activists staged 48 hours of action against E.ON Corp – the energy giants funding new coal fired power stations.

Last weekend’s actions ranged from ‘greenwash guerrillas’ at E.ON offices in London to a ‘die in’ – a mass extinction of activists disguised as animals - outside a Brighton shopping centre.
Numerous groups targeted The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) for buffering E.ON with massive loans. Outside RBS in Bristol, and in Norwich, campaigners set up stalls manned by fake E.ON staff telling real E.ON facts about new coal. One group in Brighton dressed up as cleaners and tried to scrub their RBS clean.

At the FA Cup’s HQ (the FA is sponsored by E.ON) an eco-football squad, sporting t-shirts showing pictures of new coal stations, turned up to lobby staff and the public.

The F.OFF prize however goes to the protesting Santas, who turned 48 into 96 hours, occupying E.ON HQ in Coventry. Some entered the building, toured the offices and crashed board meetings. Others blocked the front, gluing themselves to the entrance and dumping sacks of coal in the revolving door.

E.ON corp is funding the first of seven new coal power stations planned to be built in the UK. Not a single coal powered station has been built in the UK for over 30 years. (Read about this year’s Climate Camp at Kingsnorth in SchNEWS 641).

The greenwash behind a push for new coal lies with the promise of so-called ‘clean coal’.
Which is a farce as the idea behind ‘clean coal’ is premised on ‘carbon capture and storage’ – catching the carbon dioxide released after burning coal and burying it underground – technology which does not exist yet. Coal is still the dirtiest form of energy supply.

* The UK government are hovering above the big red GO-ahead button for new coal power plants. Join the National Climate March in London this Saturday (December 6th) and say NO to NEW COAL. The march begins at Grosvenor Square 12 noon and ends in Parliament Square. It is aimed to co-insides with the United Nations Climate Change Conference, currently being held in Poland from 1st-12th December 2008.

* For more see www.risingtide.org.uk