Green groups pull out of Brown’s nuclear consultation

Britain’s biggest environment groups this morning pulled out of Gordon Brown’s public consultation on nuclear power, calling it “a sham”.

The move by Greenpeace, the Green Alliance, WWF and Friends of the Earth is born of frustration after they said it became apparent the consultation was a rubber-stamping exercise designed to push through the Prime Minister’s pre-ordained policy on nuclear energy. The groups believe the exercise does not provide fair or balanced information and fails to fully consider the alternatives to nuclear power.

The Green Alliance is the leading green lobbying coalition, comprising all the major UK environment groups. CND has also pulled out of the consultation.

Earlier this year Greenpeace won a High Court ruling overturning an earlier consultation. In his February ruling Mr. Justice Sullivan called the first consultation “manifestly unfair” and “unlawful,” adding it was “seriously flawed” and “manifestly inadequate” because insufficient information had been made available by the Government for consultees to make an “intelligent response”. Greenpeace lawyers are now examining the possibility of going back to court to overturn the second consultation.

A number of meetings are being held across the country tomorrow at which just over 1,000 selected members of the public are being asked their views on nuclear power. The four green groups are now thought to be advising their members the meetings are no more than a government public relations device.

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: “This new consultation is a sham and a fraud. It manages somehow to be just as skewed as the last, and seems to have been designed to ignore the views of the public while simultaneously telling people what they should think. This government can‚t get nuclear power past a fair consultation because the policy is environmentally, financially and scientifically flawed. That’s why ministers have gone for a stitch-up.”

He continued: “A glance at the consultation document and Gordon Brown’s promise of a new kind of politics looks like a joke. Compared to Blair it’s the same style, different sofa. It’s not too late for ministers to salvage this process and avoid another legal showdown. But if they won’t listen to the public they might once again be forced to listen to a legal mauling from the High Court.”