Polly has taken the Head of the government’s Clean Energy Mission Control to task over the Minster Marshes Sea Link project in a fiery parliamentary exchange.
Sitting on the parliamentary committee tasked with scrutinising the government’s plans to deliver clean power by 2030 and bring down energy bills, Polly said that she was yet to see evidence that the impact on nature and the local community in East Thanet was being properly considered in the delivery of Sea Link.
She said:
The fact that [Sea Link] is going to damage nature when actually supposedly part the purpose of tackling climate change is for us to protect nature seems to be an irony that seems to be lost on the department. And there is no obligation at the moment… for there to be some nature positive obligations around these projects, which actually mitigates against any support that you might get from the community which loves their natural environment.
Then on top of that, there is no obligation… for the developers of these pieces of infrastructure to support the community that is going to be host to this to get any direct benefit from the energy infrastructure that they are putting in.
Now, in Victorian times, it was poor people that put up with the consequences of fossil fuel dirty pollution. Now, I don’t want it to be the situation where communities, simply because we are rich in the resources of renewable energy for whatever reason, that end up being told to suck it up.
The Labour MP has consistently said she thinks National Grid needs to reconsider the project, particularly its impact on nature and the local community.
The full exchange can be viewed on Polly’s Facebook page, by clicking here.