Council approves coal-fired power station

LONDON (Reuters) - The first coal-fired power station in Britain for more than 30 years has been approved by a local government authority, despite fears about the impact of carbon emissions on the environment.

The final decision for the power station -- to be built by German firm E.ON -- now rests with central government, but the favourable vote by Medway Council in Kent was met by fierce criticism from environmental campaigners.

"What we have here quite simply is a proposal to generate electricity by the single most climate-wrecking method in usage anywhere in the world today," Greenpeace's Ben Stewart told BBC Radio on Thursday.

E.ON said the plant -- which would replace an existing coal power station -- would be more efficient and would be up and running by 2012 to generate power for more than a million homes.

"We're facing a real energy crunch," E.ON UK Chief Executive Paul Golby told the BBC. "We're investing in cleaner coal."

European Union member states have agreed to reduce carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and Britain is expected to give the green light to a new generation of nuclear power plants next week.

(Reporting by Matt Falloon)