North Yorkshire Council – Drax Power Station’s plan for a massive data centre must have an Environmental Impact Assessment

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Drax Power Station is the single largest source of carbon emissions in the UK. Now Drax wants to build a massive hyperscale data centre at the same site, starting at 100 megawatts. And it has said it may use its biomass generators to supply power directly – in short, the UK’s first data centre powered by burning trees.

Despite all of this, North Yorkshire Council has ruled that the proposal doesn’t even need an Environmental Impact Assessment, accepting Drax’s own claim that the environmental effects would be “of local significance only.” This staggering decision is hard to understand: how can a new data centre be built at Britain’s leading site for climate pollution, without any need to assess environmental impact?

Please send a quick email to North Yorkshire Council asking them to think again. Tell them an Environmental Impact Assessment is clearly necessary to properly evaluate the climate and environmental implications of this proposal, and that the plans shouldn’t be allowed to proceed any further without one.

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