25 Mar (NucNet): A misguided faith in green energy at the expense of coal-fired and nuclear power has left the UK “far too dependent” on foreign gas supplies, largely provided by Russian and Middle Eastern producers, a British newspaper has said.
In an editorial on 24 March 2013, the Sunday Telegraph said only 45 percent of the UK’s gas consumption comes from domestic sources. “All it takes is a spell of bad weather, and the closure of a gas pipeline from Belgium, to leave the UK dangerously exposed, and to send gas prices soaring.”
The newspaper said it had warned a month ago of the problems of an energy policy that puts “expensive, inefficient green power before coal-fired and nuclear power”.
The Telegraph, a generally conservative, establishment newspaper, said: “Talk of rationing may be exaggerated, but our energy policy is failing to deal with Britain’s fundamental incapacity to produce our own power.”
Planning permission has been given for a new nuclear power station, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, but one nuclear power station, with two new reactors, isn’t nearly enough, the article said. “Moreover, it will take a decade to build and, even then, will only provide seven per cent of the country’s energy needs.”
The Telegraph said it is time for the governing coalition to “tear up its energy policy before the lights really do go out”.
It said: “The first priority must be to repeal the Climate Change Act of 2008, with its brutal, punishing targets: reducing carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, and 26 per cent by 2020. These targets have already had a disastrous effect, forcing the closure of coal-fired power stations, and increasing tax-funded subsidies on wind power. Next month, electricity bills will soar even higher, thanks to a new tax on carbon dioxide produced by coal-fired and gas-fired power stations.
“There are good intentions behind a green energy policy, and no one would wilfully want to damage the environment. But green technology – in its current incarnation, anyway – is just too inefficient and expensive to meet our energy needs.”
The article is online: http://tinyurl.com/ckry4qt
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