Minister David Miliband Visits Teesside

ENVIRONMENT Minister David Miliband is to mark the beginning of construction on one of the UK's biggest renewable fuel developments on Teesside today.

The development, by Yarm-based biofuels firm Ensus, at a site in Wilton, near Redcar, will produce 400m litres of environmentally-friendly fuel bioethanol, and will use about 1m tonnes of wheat a year.

Mr Miliband will also visit Teesport, in Middlesbrough, to learn more about proposals to create a £300m container terminal at the site, in a move that could create 5,500 jobs and save 70m road miles each year.

£2bn Coal-Fired Power Station for the Region

ENERGY company RWE npower has unveiled plans to create a new £2bn coal-fired power station in the north of the region.

The project, planned for the site of the old Blyth Power Station in Northumberland, could see up to 1,500 construction jobs created. About 200 more positions would then be needed to operate the station, which is scheduled for completion in 2014.

Millions of tonnes of coal would be shipped in from overseas, into North-East ports that at one time exported the fuel around the world.