Kingsnorth climate protesters target biofuel depot

Vopak site in Essex blockaded as part of week-long environment protest
Jenny Percival and agencies
guardian.co.uk,
Thursday August 07 2008 12:40 BST

Climate change activists today blockaded a biofuel depot as part of a week-long protest camp based at Kingsnorth power station in Kent.
The protesters said they were stopping fuel lorries from leaving or entering the Vopak depot in Thurrock, Essex, to show their anger at the environmental destruction caused by biofuels.
Eight people who lay in the road with their arms in "lock-on tubes" to stop police removing them were arrested. Others unveiled a 12-metre banner from the top of one of the site's containers proclaiming a day of action against biofuels. Four people chained themselves to a fuel storage tank.
The campaigners said they stopped the lorries entering the site, but police said the blockade had been broken up.
Vopak said its main concerns were the safe removal of the protesters and the safety and security of its terminal. Its UK operations manager, Craig Garbutt, declined to comment on the protest itself
The blockade is part of the week-long climate camp outside Kingsnorth. The estimated 1,000 campaigners at the site near Hoo are opposed to proposals by its owner, E.On, to build a new on-site coal-fired facility. It would be the first such plant built in Britain for more than 30 years.
The climate activists at Vopak were targeting biofuels - petrol or diesel made from plant materials. Biofuels were originally seen as a greener alternative to fossil fuels, but have been shown to cause deforestation and contribute to food price rises as land use is switched to growing fuel crops such as palm oil and maize.
The protesters said companies such as Greenergy and Tesco, which use the depot for biofuel supplies, were causing food price rises, world hunger, ecosystem destruction and accelerated climate change.
Julia Brownlow, one of the protesters, said: "Agrofuels are destroying the very ecosystems which can stabilise the climate - with the collapse of the Amazon possibly just a few years away I am left with no choice but to take action."
The camp for climate action, which began with a march from Rochester on Sunday, has been marred by clashes between police and campaigners.
Officers confiscated weapons and other items after carrying out a search of trees and undergrowth surrounding the camp site on Monday evening.