ExxonMobil has been hosting a series of public consultation events across the Isle of Wight as part of its controversial plans for a Solent CO2 Pipeline. The American multinational oil and gas corporation says the events are for members of the public to meet the pipeline project team, learn about its plans and ask questions. Yesterday, at Shalfleet Village Hall, the firm hosted its 6th consultation event which ran from 10:30 to 17:00. No photographs, video recordings or interviews were allowed within the hall’s event space which was filled with exhibition stands laying out pipeline plans. A large, briefed team of ExxonMobil staff were on hand to speak with visitors. Retired Isle of Wight Council statutory scrutiny officer Paul Thistlewood attended the Shalfleet Village Hall event and described it as ‘very informative’. The 67-year-old from Thorness said:
“I know companies get accused of producing glossy brochures – since I’ve been home I’ve been looking through all the plans and reading it more in detail after having the opportunity of discussing it with representatives and it’s given me what I hope is a better knowledge now of what is being proposed and why it’s being proposed.”
Paul did not, however, think the firm had fully explained what benefits would be accrued to the Island from having pipeline works which he found ‘slightly disappointing’. Previous sessions on the Island have taken place in Brighstone, Newport and Yarmouth. ExxonMobil also has events scheduled in Cowes’ Phoenix Knights Centre on Friday and Tuesday 3rd September as well as on Saturday in Niton Village Hall. The corporation claims over 1,000 people have attended the events so far. 
Councillor Nick Stuart, a staunch opponent of the pipeline who represents Brighstone, Calborne and Shalfleet on the Isle of Wight Council, has attended 3 of the events. He said ExxonMobil had made a ‘very strong effort’ to not put out the consultation too much with minimal material given to the press and no advertising campaign. The former civil servant said:
“There are a lot of questions which they are unable to answer. “They will not answer any questions about the methodology, about the various possibilities for the pipeline routes because those are their decisions. “They basically won’t give you the criteria by which they chose the pipeline route apart from to say: there were 13 previous ones and for various reasons we decided not to but they won’t actually give you the full, complete criteria under which they selected. “Fundamentally it does come down to cost and they made it very clear to a number of people in a number of the settings that they just want to drive it across the Isle of Wight.”
Explaining the events at Shalfleet Village Hall, Ralf Rashbrook, ExxonMobil’s Solent Project venture manager, said:
“This is part of the development consent order process – we’re running 12 consultation events across the Island and the mainland, of which this is one of them. “We’re really interested to get feedback from local residents to help us as part of that consultation process, to get that input. “Ultimately the people who live in the area know more about the area they live in than we do – we’re very keen to get peoples’ views and then to feed into that process as part of that development consent order process to understand which is the most favoured route.”
Just pump the co2 into the atmosphere.Problem solved.
Labour will allow anyone to do anything so long as the price is right to fund their agenda to outbreed the British people in their own country.
Pointless complaining as all the concerns will be pre- empt by the company and a ‘cosy’ answer ready and waiting.
Should have voted Reform
Too late now
Well almost right. Labour will do almost anything to grow the economy so that they have the money to spend on the NHS, education, police, keeping Putin in his box, etc, etc.
Not everything is about immigration.
“Not everything is about immigration.”
Wrong!
You’ll probably find the Tories have sold off more of this country and done away with more of our rights than Labour have by a mile.
Yes. Vote for a party that is actually a business run by millionaires for the benefit of millionaires, paid for by the terminally stupid and gullible.
They are of the same ilk as the directors of ExxonMobil and have the same contempt of ordinary people.
They could process the CO2 at Fawley so why go to all this trouble to move the stuff just to store it. The answer is aimple – it is cheaper and therefore more cost effective for Exxon and better for their shareholders.
This must be very worrying for the residents of the Isle of Wight West Oblast.
They should write to their MP.
This should not be allowed to go ahead, as they will not tell you the full picture about the excavations, as they will be three time the width if the actual excavation site, plus the boundaries, which will destroy this Islands areas of Protected Places of interest and Fauna of our Island, apart from the destruction this will cause whilst this goes ahed ( must be stopped ) the Island will be in a terrible mess roads broken up Farmers fields destroyed for good, as the land is never any good afterwards etc etc.
The routes run through AONB, SSI, Heritage coast and Marine conservation areas. the only CO2 it seems to be dealing with comes from Fawley. Why should we have our countryside trashed for them?
Hello All!
Just spotted this Industry News Press Report…could you verify it if possible, as it is linked to the Change.org Stop the Solent CO2 Pipeline:
https://carbonherald.com/exxon-mobil-uks-co2-pipeline-plans-uncertain-after-strong-petition/
Is Exxon having doubts about the 45km Marine + Isle of Wight CO2 Pipeline? Could you ask them?
I can understand where you’re coming from, but people really need to be careful, especially when suggesting that Council officials etc, for instance, are open to taking bribes.
You might use a silly username on here, but that certainly doesn’t guarantee you anonymity. People have been easily traced on social media and the like after making malicious, unfounded or untrue comments.
Island Echo needs to be careful too for allowing it to be published. It’s quite a serious allegation, stating that a Council official will take a bribe. Be careful.
So, if I’m correct (and I’m very willing to be contradicted here) this pipeline doesn’t do anything apart from lead to a space under the Channel to store the CO2 created at Fawley?
It doesn’t actually get rid of the carbon dioxide, but just moves it someplace else?
And, if we’re concerned about CO2, how much greenhouse gases would be produced just by the building, digging trenches, laying the pipeline, burying it or laying it at sea, pumping the gas etc, just so that the refinery at Fawley can look, on paper, a bit greener?
It just seems like a paper exercise, hiding the by-product of what they do at Fawley away from the site.
The fact that photography and video recordings were banned speaks volumes.