Birmingham Friends of the Earth Action Briefing Feb/Mar 99

Hello,

I've recently taken over from David Dugmore as the Energy Campaigner. David is still an active campaigner here, but he wants to devote more of his time to the campaign against the Multilateral Agreement on Investment.

I remember, back in the '60's, when it first became known that sulphur emissions were causing problems for people living close to power stations. At that time, the Central Electricity Generating Board opted for the cheapest solution to these problems, which involved simply fitting taller chimneys to their power stations, which were mostly situated near the East coast. Predictably this pushed the environmental problems across the North Sea, with the resulting devastation of the Scandinavian forests due to 'acid rain' in the 1970's.

Of course, in the long term view, such short sighted, environmentally unfriendly, 'solutions' don't even make economic sense, because eventually a long term solution has to be found and implemented. Additionally there is the cost of clearing up after such environmental disasters, which is itself likely to be considerable more than the cost of prevention would have been in the first place.

CHEAPEST NOT ALWAYS BEST!

The introduction of competition in the energy supply industry will bring home to all of us the temptation to go for the cheapest option. Price however should not be our only criterion in choosing which of the competing energy supply companies to opt for. As Friends of the Earth members we should of course also be concerned with the environmental policies of any potential supplier, and to help us make an informed choice in this matter, Friends of the Earth produced the league table reproduced here.

This rates the various energy supply companies according to their green credentials. This has already achieved considerable press coverage, including Radio 4's "You and Yours", the Observer, the Times, the Daily Mirror, the Guardian, and the Daily Telegraph. Although any such league table was bound to be controversial, it has certainly achieved the desired effect of making the Electricity supply companies more aware that their environmental performance is being monitored and that price is not the only factor of interest to customers. Next time you are in the Warehouse with a couple of minutes to spare, you could usefully reinforce this message to your own Electricity Supply Company by completing one of the "CLIMATE CHALLENGE!" postcards available in reception.

Keith Stein