UK Court Dismisses Challenge Against Net-Zero Gas Power Plant

London’s High Court dismissed on Wednesday a lawsuit claiming that a proposed gas-fired power plant with carbon capture has been unlawfully approved by the government.

The Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power) is a joint venture between international oil majors UK and Equinor and could generate up to 860 megawatts (MW) of flexible, dispatchable low-carbon power equivalent to the average electricity requirements of around 1.3 million UK homes. The project is planned to be a first-of-a-kind fully integrated gas-fired power and carbon capture project and a key driving force behind plans to make Teesside the UK’s first decarbonized industrial cluster, the companies have said.

The plant’s approval was challenged by climate activist Andrew Boswell, who has campaigned against “the fake Net Zero project”.

“I am taking this challenge to the £4 billion Net Zero Teesside Power (NZTP) joint venture from fossil giants, BP and Equinor, because my forensic review of the carbon footprint calculations shows this power plant, and others like it planned, is not consistent with the UK meeting its carbon budgets and international climate obligations,” Boswell has said.

According to the campaigner, the legal case “also raises issues about the carbon deceptions in the UK Government’s Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS) program and follow-on developments such as blue hydrogen and increased LNG imports that it is built upon.”

After hearing the case, Judge Nathalie Lieven of London’s High Court dismissed the case and wrote in Wednesday’s ruling that “The development was strongly supported in national policy, both planning and energy policy.”

BP, one of the project’s partners, welcomed the court’s ruling, and a spokesperson said in a statement, carried by Reuters,

“This project will help the UK Government to meet its net zero targets by capturing CO2 emissions, while helping to maintain energy security through the supply of dispatchable low-carbon electricity to back up renewables.”

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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