R (Biofuelwatch UK) v Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (the Drax Power Station Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage Extension Order 2024)

The Drax power station is a large biomass power station in Drax, North Yorkshire, England. In January 2024, the Secretary of State granted development consent to install carbon capture technology at the plant. That decision has been challenged on public law grounds. The claimant is Biofuelwatch UK, which campaigns against the burning of biofuels. It argues the decision was unlawful as the likely harmful environmental effects were not assessed or taken into account, in breach of the relevant environmental impact assessment (EIA) regulations. Specifically it is said the regulations were breached:

• By zero-rating the carbon (CO2) emissions from biomass burning, i.e. treating it as producing no greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, despite the obvious and indisputable fact that the combustion of biomass releases huge quantities of GHG emissions
• By excluding the CO2 emissions from the units to be fitted with the carbon capture technology
• By treating the works to construct and operate transport and storage facilities for captured carbon as a separate project.

Biofuelwatch argues the Humber Low Carbon Pipelines Project to transfer the CO2 and store it in rock formations under the North Sea is essential for the Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) to operate as a whole and should have been treated as the same project for EIA purposes.

The impact of these errors on the decision is said to be significant, on the basis they allowed the energy secretary to treat the project as resulting in a net reduction in emissions of 7,975,620 tCO2e per annum.

The next step is for the High Court to decide whether to give permission for the claim to proceed to a full hearing.