It makes you wonder why they do it. Greenpeace is an organisation that is against nuclear energy. They share my views on the dangers of nuclear energy as do probably tens of millions of people. EDF is a business that owns and runs most of the nuclear powered power plants in Englandand France. Nuclear power is core to their business.
It is perfectly legal for EDF to run nuclear power plants and perfectly legal for Greenpeace to protest about nuclear power plants. There is legitimacy in both viewpoints although probably only one viewpoint will prove right at the end of the day.
Greenpeace monitor the activities of EDF and EDF monitor the activities of Greenpeace. They do this in an effort to persuade people that nuclear energy is a good thing or a bad thing. They both mount political campaigns to win the hearts and minds of people over to their view.
Sometimes both organisations step over the line. Greenpeace has arranged eye catching and headline catching demonstrations which involve sometimes trespass, which is a civil wrong. However EDF seems to have gone beyond the normal hurley-burley of argument and has now been convicted of criminal activity in relation to Greenpeace. Computers were hacked into and data stolen.
As a result the authorities in France instituted criminal proceedings against EDF and some of the people involved. EDF has been fined €1,500,000 and two of its employees are serving prison sentences. Two other people who work for the agency that EDF employed to carry out activities against Greenpeace are also in jail.
It is very hard to understand why companies such as EDF feel that they are above the law. There seems to be a similar scandal brewing in the United Kingdom about the activities of News International but that has not yet reached the courts here.
I hold that we all have to obey the law, unless the law is wrong or unjust. There is nothing unjust about laws against computer hacking or cell phone voicemail hacking and there is a kind of arrogance by large corporate entities that feel that these laws do not apply to them. This is not about corporate governance, but about the culture that exists in some multinational corporations.
EDF is one of the six major suppliers of energy in the United Kingdom. They run eight nuclear reactors here and plan to build four more. Their activities against Greenpeace must make us all extremely uncomfortable and pose the question “are they fit and proper to run nuclear reactors?”
Filed under: energy, nuclear, nuclear energy Tagged: | EDF, Greenpeace, hacking
O dear, if one is worried about their electricity supplier etc being corrupt then how about two and a half million women and children dead since the UN entered Iraq for their oil, I guess there will be millions of people refusing to buy petrol, get a grip, PLease.
Better still turn off your mains at the switch sell your car and give the dog away just in case there is any foul energy involved in the mix.
Oh so in constant resolution with our whole we are, Solar has now been attacked further in favour for an intermittent alternative.
A 103 million pounds have just been given to the wind and wave industry for developing such technology and solar subsidies halved, wave goodby to any recovery as an alternative company, One company Solar World has lost 12 million in orders alone and thousands more jobs to go in the future.
The giants are now stamping their feet and spitting out their dummies and getting their own way.
Better to buy some land plant a wood and grow carbon neutral fuel for the best renewable of them all, THE natural self seeding long term returns policy.
I currently purchase my household gas from EDF but I will now look for another supplier. I suggest other readers of your Blog for whom EDF is their current Gas/Electricity supplier consider to do the same and inform EDF why they have chosen to do this.
If I bought any energy from EDF I would do the same.
Robert