Greens welcome Hydrogen Plant

25th November 2007

Sheffield Green Party has today welcomed ITM Power's plans to open a power plant which produces "green" power from hydrogen and oxygen, but warns that the city as a whole has a long way to go.

"It's good to see a local company leading the way on green energy. This is the kind of thing Sheffield's manufacturing and technical expertise should be used for", says Cllr Bernard Little. "We now know that Sheffield's carbon footprint is the biggest outside London. The Council has just voted through a "business as usual" economic masterplan with policies on transport and housing that don't tackle this problem. We've got an "energy recovery facility" - an incinerator - chucking out 8 tonnes of CO2 per hour, and we're stuck with it because the company that owns it has got the city's waste contact till 2036. And Sheffield is still in traffic gridlock.

"We need a city-wide strategy that spells out how we are going to reduce our carbon footprint by 90% by 2030. Sheffield should be showing the country what a low carbon city really is. This plant could be a step in the right direction"

ENDS

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