Yorkshire bid for £30bn carbon capture funding

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OFFICIALS are on the verge of resurrecting a £30bn environmental project which could create thousands of jobs in West Yorkshire.

An MP has been told that regeneration quango Yorkshire Forward (YF) is considering applying for European funding for an ambitious carbon capture and storage project after a bid for £1bn was refused by the Government last year.

YF officials have told Labour backbencher Michael Clapham they are “quietly confident” that they can secure enough cash from Brussels to keep the scheme alive.

The project would see carbon dioxide from 18 Yorkshire power stations and industrial plants collected, liquefied and piped into empty gas fields in the North Sea.

It would involve major building projects at Drax power station near Selby, Ferrybridge near Knottingley and Eggborough near Goole.

Mr Clapham has been told that the scheme would create 55,000 jobs, many in West and North Yorkshire.

A YF spokeswoman would today only say that “we are looking at opportunities for the future”, although she stressed forging a low carbon economy was a “big priority” for the quango’s chief executive Tom Riordan.

Mr Clapham, a former coal miner and Leeds University student, said: “I thought it was beyond that and that an application had gone in.”

The Government recently excluded the Yorkshire Forward scheme – to capture two-thirds of the region’s CO2 emissions – from a competition for up to £1bn of funding.

Ministers have insisted on the taxpayer only funding one demonstration project. Nine schemes have been put forward.

The carbon capture project is led by YF but also involves Corus, Scottish and Southern Energy, Powerfuel Power Ltd, BP, ConocoPhillips, E.ON UK, Shell and Drax Power.