By Ben Caldecott & Gavin Dick of the Conservative Environment Network.
Energy security is national security. The provision
of reliable, sustainable and affordable energy is of critical importance. The benign energy
security situation that has prevailed in Britain – as a result of relatively
plentiful North Sea oil and gas supplies, as well as sufficient excess
generating capacity – meant that energy security hasn’t been a major concern.
Times have changed. The benign energy security situation inherited by the
Labour Government in 1997 has steadily become the opposite. We now face a
significant energy security challenge.
The situation is getting worse all the
time. The retirement of our aging nuclear power stations and the closure of
many coal-powered ones due to the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive mean that
we face a rapidly growing energy gap. By 2020 between one-third and one-half of
our existing electricity generation capacity will need to be replaced.
We now have a situation where Britain is a
net energy importer and as North Sea oil and gas decline further, we’re being
exposed to high and volatile energy prices. This is a symptom of energy
insecurity - whilst our first dash for gas was founded
on secure North Sea reserves, the second is reliant on insecure foreign ones.
Energy price spikes highlight the problems of Britain’s growing dependence on
these foreign energy supplies, as well as our problematic interaction with
state dominated energy markets in Europe and most of the rest of the
world.
To solve the problem the UK
needs a diverse energy mix capable of providing long term security of supply. We
are fortunate to be endowed with many indigenous resources. Given the political
will we could utilise these to deploy secure and clean forms of energy such as renewables, nuclear and clean
coal. This would enable to us to avoid the pain and expense of energy
insecurity that will occur under business as usual.
Whilst the Government knows this, it is doing too
little to ensure that capacity is replaced with secure forms of alternative
energy. It is also failing to deploy energy efficiency measures quickly enough,
which could help to reduce our exposure to insecure energy markets by reducing
energy demand rapidly.
In large part this is down to the poor way that energy
policy has been determined. The seemingly endless succession of energy policy
reviews and ad hoc policy interventions has confused investors and regulators
the like, delaying or preventing crucial investments. To make matters worse,
there are a plethora of organisations charged with delivering energy policy. This
has led to an unnecessarily large and wasteful bureaucracy, that’s also open to
lobbying from a variety of special interests. This combination of failures,
together with new urgent security and carbon constraints, make our existing
energy policy no longer fit for purpose.
We need a credible new energy policy fit for dealing
with challenges of energy security. If the Conservative Party win the General Election
they need to set out clearly how we will rapidly deploy alternative energy and
energy efficiency measures so we can avoid black outs, as well as higher and
more volatile energy bills. The urgency of doing this cannot be understated. It
is an integral part of Britain’s national security, as well as being essential
for our low carbon future. Most importantly for the electorate, it will help us
keep the lights on.
