British Energy
Background
British Energy is Britain's largest producer of electricity, generating around one-fifth of the nation’s electricity. British Energy was privatised and floated in 1996. Nuclear Electric constitutes half of British Energy. BE currently owns and operates two thirds of UK's nuclear power stations. Mike Alexander, its Chief Executive is an enthusiastic proponent of nuclear energy. Delivering the keynote speech at a gathering of UK's leading energy figures organized by the Energy Industries Club, he declared that the volume of waste produced by nuclear energy is trivial, "equivalent to 24 double-decker buses a year".
PR and Lobbying
In 2003/04 BE retained PPS Group a specialist PR agency focused on influencing local government particularly in relation to planning issues. In early 2004 BE dropped Hill & Knowlton as its retained PA adviser after 14 years. In October 2004, British Energy appointed Craig Stevenson, a former UK lobbyist for Monsanto as the head of government affairs and in December it enlisted Helen Liddell, the former energy minister, to provide "strategic advice" on a short contract for a fee of roughly £15,000. BE also commissioned the services of Financial Dynamics, a PR firm, for a sum of £1million.(New Statesman, May 27, 2005)
British Energy is a founding member of the Scottish Parliament Business Exchange and helped to fund the Science Media Centre
Key Personnel
| Chief Executive: | Mike Alexander |
Related Articles
- Tim Webb, "Analysis: Nuclear haze",Independent on Sunday, November 27, 2005
- Jonathan Leake and Dan Box, When PR goes nuclear, New Statesman, May 27, 2005
