Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Greenpeace looses its taste for juice pt2

Here is the reply from Greenpeace

Hello Colin,

Thank you for your enquiry regarding Greenpeace's relationship
with Juice and npower.

As you know, for the past five years we have been working with
npower to promote Juice, a green electricity scheme linked to
offshore wind. Partly as a result of Juice the UK's first offshore
wind farm was built at North Hoyle off North Wales. The green
electricity market has also been transformed and now several
non-premium tariffs are available. So we can be pleased with
what we have achieved in campaign terms through the relationship
with npower.

Offshore wind is now on the way to becoming established as an
energy source in the UK. Npower have plans to build a second
farm next to North Hoyle and a third, much bigger one, in the
area over the next few years. Gaining public support for
offshore wind through Juice greatly helped to get the first wind
farm under way, however such campaigning and our involvement
should not be necessary in order to get the subsequent projects
built.

In addition, we learned recently from npower that they have
decided to join with other electricity generators to take the]
UK Government to court to try to secure an increase in their
emissions allocation under the European Emissions Trading System.
In other words, they want to be allowed to emit more carbon than
the Government wants to allow them. At a time when the UK is
off course o meet its carbon targets, and when scientific news
on climate change is becoming ever more alarming, we do
not think that this decision by npower is justifiable.

In the light of this court case we have now decided to end our
formal partnership with npower and, therefore, our pro-active
promotion of Juice. We have given npower notice of termination
of contract. This does not mean that Juice has suddenly become
a bad product. We continue to believe that it is the best non
price premium green electricity scheme on the market, and will
continue to recommend it to people contacting us to enquire
about green energy. I personally get my electricity at home
from Juice, as does our Executive Director, and we have no plans
to switch suppliers.

I hope that helps,

Lisa Weatherley
Supporter Services, Greenpeace UK
www.greenpeace.org.uk

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