Farmers protest against cheap energy plant - 21/07/2010
Plans to build a new plant in Scotland that converts waste into cheap energy have been met with opposition.
Local farmers are protesting Scotgen's proposed "gasification" plant in South Lanarkshire because they fear it would produce toxic waste and harm the local ecosystem.
Members of the Dovesdale Action Group said the plant, which would covert burning waste into electricity, would also create congestion on local roads and harm their livelihoods.
Scotgen countered the protests by stressing that the cheap energy plant would create up to 50 jobs and would rid the local area of unwanted and harmful materials such as oily rags, contaminated packaging and empty used containers.
"These are perhaps some of the very types of waste generated by the waste producers on this protest," a spokesman for the energy supplier told BBC News.
Stewart Weir, a spokesman for Dovesdale, said the group plans to follow up a recent protest, in which over 20 tractors took to the road, with more demonstrations.
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