Port Talbot steel giant warns of worries over climate change action

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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
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This is SouthWales

STEEL giant Tata has warned Government moves to tackle climate change could have a serious impact on heavy industry.

Energy secretary Chris Huhne is today expected to announce a tough new stance on cutting Britain's carbon emissions and greenhouse gases up to 2027.

But, while the move will bolster the UK's green credentials, steel powerhouse Tata is concerned about the potential impact on its global position.

Tata employs 21,000 staff across the UK including 4,100 at its Port Talbot plant which has not been producing at full capacity this year.

A spokesman for the company yesterday confirmed Tata officials have met with Government at the highest levels to press its case.

Tata is in the process of investing more than £185 million in rebuilding one of its two blast furnaces in Port Talbot and recently hosted a visit by Business Secretary Vince Cable.

Discussions

The firm's spokesman said: "The company is interested in constructive discussions with the Government to find solutions that will avoid destroying the competitiveness of the UK's steel industry while at the same time tackling climate change and the energy crisis.

"The company is a global steel maker with competing investment opportunities, and the additional costs associated with environmental and energy regulation in the UK and in Europe as a whole are causing increasing concern."

Llanelli MP Nia Griffith expressed fears that Tata might pull out of the UK altogether earlier this year.

Tata Port Talbot site director Jon Ferriman spoke to the Evening Post during Vince Cable's visit and said he did not think Tata would withdraw from the UK.

Yesterday a Tata spokesman said: "We impressed upon the secretary of state for business our concerns and also our needs.

"We opened his eyes to the opportunities that we have here to reduce carbon dioxide emissions but we also opened his eyes to the challenges we are facing in doing it.

"It is vital to say you simply cannot make steel without producing carbon dioxide. We will be regarding developments in Westminster with considerable interest and in Wales as well."

rupert.hall@swwmedia.co.uk

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  • Profile image for This is SouthWales

    by John, Llanelli

    Thursday, May 19 2011, 10:15AM

    “Not at all. The IPCC, Pennsylvania State University, the University of East Anglia CRU and the UK Met Office have been doing a grand job of destroying the warmist cause.”

  • Profile image for This is SouthWales

    by Bill, Mumbles

    Wednesday, May 18 2011, 8:44PM

    “@John, Llanelli
    I think that you should thank U.S. Republican Party and Steve Milloy for most of your last post.
    Personally, I find that Milloy and the GOP are extremely biased.
    If you have anything original to state: Submit your findings to Centre for Climate Change Research at Imperial College London.”

  • Profile image for This is SouthWales

    by Geraldine, Port Talbot

    Wednesday, May 18 2011, 2:52PM

    “Before you pass and coments you want to live in the shadows of this stinking filthy works you will soon change your minds”

  • Profile image for This is SouthWales

    by John, Llanelli

    Wednesday, May 18 2011, 2:02PM

    “It is absolutely evidence-based. There is NO demonstrable evidence that man is influencing the climate. After the Climategate revelations in November 2009, even Phil Jones, the head of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and major contributor to the IPCC reports came clean and had to admit that there had been no global warming since 1995, even though the earth¿s CO2 concentrations have increased by around 8 per cent since then. Furthermore the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has admitted that the U.S. could be shut down in terms of CO2 emissions for 100 years and it would make precious little difference to the atmospheric CO2 level - possibly on the order of 5 percent.

    It is becoming increasingly obvious that the global climate is not playing ball with computer-modelled predictions. For example, in 2000, scientists smugly predicted that, due to global warming, snow would be a thing of the past in the UK by 2010, while failing to predict that the global climate would start to cool from 2002. The big bucks, far from being paid out by the energy companies upon who mankind depends, are being waved around in front of scientists by politicians who seek world government while fleecing the taxpayer through green taxes, higher energy bills and the demonisation of plant food.

    Adjusting observed data (¿hiding the decline¿) and allowing through an increasing number of ¿heat island¿ temperature readings to fit preconceived climate models is a complete reversal of scientific principles and demonstrates how politicised the whole issue has become. I don¿t deny that the global climate is warming ¿ it has been doing so within the realms of natural variability since the last mini Ice Age in the 18th century, but the runaway warming predicted by Al Gore, Michael Mann etc is increasingly at odds with observed events such as the ongoing multi-decadal cooling phase (similar to the one between 1945 & 1975) that an increasing number of scientists now claim we are set to remain in until around 2030, thanks in no small part to the current prolonged solar minimum.

    The atmospheric feedbacks on which the whole MMGW theory depends exist only in hypothetical computer models which do not even take into consideration the impact of solar activity or the cooling effect of clouds which the increase in atmospheric water vapour would produce. The ability of nature to control its own destiny is being swept aside for political ends. The ¿king¿s new clothes¿ story is alive and well in the 21st century. Enjoy it, Bill.”

  • Profile image for This is SouthWales

    by Bill, Mumbles

    Tuesday, May 17 2011, 8:04PM

    “@John, Llanelli
    Is your statement about "blind belief in the man-made global warming scam" evidence-based or are you parroting the views of cranks and billionaires with a vested interest in putting money ahead of everything?
    If you have proof that humans do not add to sufficient greenhouse gases to make any difference, please submit your findings to Centre for Climate Change Research at Imperial College London.
    http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/climatechange”

  • Profile image for This is SouthWales

    by John, Llanelli

    Tuesday, May 17 2011, 5:38PM

    “Unfortunately it's going to take something like the withdrawal of Tata from the UK before the government wakes up to how their blind belief in the man-made global warming scam is really just wrecking the country's economy while being of no real benefit.

    The UK will be grossly uncompetitive while the likes of India & China, free of the the shackles of green political dogma & EU emissions targets, will thrive.”

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