Greg Clark must keep the lights on

We have high hopes for Greg Clark MP, the new Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.  We don't expect him to be as cautious about climate change as we are, but we hope that he'll ask very tough questions of those who insist that their way of tackling climate change is the only way.  He could start with the EU.  Open Europe's Hugo Robinson writes for ConHome today about the inflexibility of the Brussels' climate change plan and how it might be bad for the environment and disastrous for the economy.  If there is to be an international agreement on climate change - beyond the EU and involving India and China - Greg Clark should be urging a rethink of the EU model.

More importantly - as far as we are concerned - is the need to keep the lights on.  Matt Sinclair put it well on CentreRight:

"The reason why Ministers love working on climate change is that the outcomes are all decades and centuries in the future so there is no real accountability. By contrast, people will notice if the lights go out. While politicians can try and blame the energy companies, or hope they're in a different job by the time poor choices lead to economic disaster, there is a much greater chance that the public will notice when political leaders let them down in energy policy than with climate change."

The Tories had been dragging their feet on energy policy although latterly have been making more positive noises about nuclear energy and clean coal.  Greg Clark needs to demonstrate that the Tories have a plan to address the looming crisis in British energy supply.  The insecurity of Britain's energy supply - and the associated expense to business and consumers - is set to be a top-of-the-news issue in five years' time.  Greg Clark is as clever and courteous as Michael Gove. He now needs to prove that he is as courageous. We hope Greg will be to energy policy what Michael Gove has been to education policy. 

> Step 4/10: Put Eric Pickles in CCHQ

Comments

[DCMX]

Excellent post.
We were behind the curve on the recession. We mustn't be behind the curve on the energy crisis. I hope your faith in Greg Clark is well founded.
Hopefully he won't be taking advice from Polly Toynbee in this portfolio.

[Hawkeye]

As revealed on "File on Four" at the weekend, the current UK generating reserve for November is 800MW - less than one power station. We have so many off-line at present that the lights could indeed go out.

The most likely time is at the end of East Enders when millions of kettles go on. Each night, power stations get ready to deal with the "pick up". If we lose another power station, the "pick up" could be nasty.

[prziloczek]

Did anyone else notice how, in his Big Speech this morning, the Prime Minister referred with some relish to "oil" and "renewables" with regard to energy.
He did not mention coal.
What I don't know is this: how much coal is there actually remaining under our sceptred isle?

[Kirk]

Prediction: demand for energy is going to crash thanks to the credit crunch

[Edward Huxley]

Let`s hope he comes out with a clear plan to put keeping the lights on first,and being "green" second. This means cancelling the wretched subsidised wind farms and building nuclear and more coal fired plants urgently.

This will upset David Cameron`s friend, wealthy contributor to party funds and PPC for Richmond Park Zac Goldsmith, who supports criminal damage to coal fired power stations.

Has he got the bottle for it?

[Umbrella man]

True Kirk but what will crash faster Kirk: Supply or demand?

[rationality]

a few points:

- energy demand will fall with economic slowdown. Supply will not fall until plants start coming offline in 2015.

- the party have already announced funding for several new coal plants to be fitted with CCS to bring them down to gas fired emmissions levels. this could provide 5 or 6 GW of power, more than the government have planned.

- nuclear is a SUBSIDISED energy source in the UK and always has been. This is not even considering the vast legacy clean up costs.

- renewables, all carbon considrations aside offer the opportunity to provide us with energy security and, in the longer term, cheaper energy. The potential for economic growth due to green collar jobs is also immense. One turbine manufacturer alone is talking about creating more jobs than Nissan in the next 5 years in the NE.

-whilst there is a challenge in the short term to replace our energy generation sensibly- as a good deal of plant is set to come offline in the next few years- taking the right choices is crucial and scaremongering and rash decision making a dangerous possibility. Rather than ruling out technologies the best approach will be to avoid prejudicial poerspectives. Let everything compete, rule nothing out, provide infrastructure and a strategic overview that appreciates emerging technologies, home growth engineering and experitise and a sensible appreciation of our longer term carbon comittments (see the climate change bill REPORT STAGE TODAY!).

NB in the light of the current slowdown, even the governments conservative projections of new energy supply will be more than enough and certainly nothing worse than the last 10 years.

Cost of energy and fuel poverty is a far more pressing issue, both politically and socially and this energy crisis panic is a dangerous distraction.

[Robot]

The Tories had been dragging their feet on energy policy although latterly have been making more positive noises about nuclear energy and clean coal.Great sentence .....