Make Drax wait for its next subsidy deal. An FCA investigation is serious | Nils Pratley

Ministers should find out what the regulator says before signing away a further ?1.8bn of public moneyThere is already a scandal of bad accounting at Drax, one could say mischievously. It's the one that maintains that transporting wood pellets from North America to burn in North Yorkshire is a "carbon neutral" activity because replacement trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow. You don't have to be a green lobbyist to think there's something wrong there. As the research group Ember regularly reminds us, Drax is the UK's biggest emitter yet qualifies for renewables subsidies.The company paid a ?25m voluntary penalty, or loose change in the context of ?7bn of subsidies to date Continue reading...