Louis Bacon

A City billionaire has urged Britain’s biggest ‘renewable’ power station to sack its boss, claiming the business is now as ‘toxic as working for tobacco’. Louis Bacon, the American founder of hedge fund Moore Capital, lambasted energy company Drax’s ‘egregious’ failings in a scathing letter published on Tuesday, calling it an ‘environmental and ethical calamity’. He called for chief executive Will Gardiner to be sacked just days after the City watchdog said it would investigate the company regarding the sourcing of wood pellets used in its biomass plant in North Yorkshire. It is another embarrassment for Energy Secretary Ed Miliband after he agreed to extend subsidies for the company, which has long drawn fire from environmental groups. Biomass power stations – which create electricity by burning resources such as wood – have long drawn criticism from campaigners, who say their claims of producing ‘renewable’ energy from imported pellets are exaggerated.