KEY POINTS:
Genesis Energy and the police are pointing fingers over who decided not to press charges against nine Greenpeace activists who scaled a 150m chimney at Huntly Power Station in protest against the coal-fired plant.
Huntly police said they had reluctantly dropped action against the protesters because Genesis declined
to press charges. But Genesis Energy spokesman Richard Gordon said that was not the case.
"We understood we were going to prosecute those activists and that we were working with the local police to do that. We had not decided that we were not going to press charges.
"We received a letter last week from the police informing us that in their opinion ... there was not sufficient evidence or a sufficient case to continue with the prosecution."
Mr Gordon said the activists had damaged fences, gates and ventilation grilles as they entered the power station. "We thought it was pretty obvious that there was a case to answer."
Genesis had also caused damage in getting to the activists.
He denied Genesis was scared of further bad publicity.
"Not really. We don't back away from the fact that Huntly is a big coal-fired power station."
Huntly Sergeant Blair Donaldson said police had invested a lot of time on the incident and between four and six police officers had spent about half a day at the protest.
"We took advice from our legal section if we could take independent action such as a breach of the peace or trespass but were advised we could not and we will be writing to Genesis in regards to their inaction."
Huntly Senior Sergeant Pete Simpson declined to comment about Mr Donaldson's comments but said they sounded "exactly right".
Mr Simpson said he would not comment further before talking to Genesis again.
Greenpeace climate campaigner Vanessa Atkinson was pleased to hear nobody would be facing charges.
"We're always prepared to stand by our actions and to take anything that comes along with that but at the end of the day if we can focus our efforts and our energy on campaigning for renewable energy and energy efficiency that's a good result."
Asked if Greenpeace would protest again at Huntly, Ms Atkinson said the organisation would continue to campaign for reduced emissions.
"I would think that Genesis should be thinking long and hard about the PR implications of taking charges against Greenpeace on a climate activity."
In the February protest, the nine activists scaled the 150m chimney stack intending to put up a huge banner drawing attention to climate change. High winds meant the climb was called off before they could attach the banner.
- NZPA
