Planning Bill

moved Amendment No. 115: 115: Clause 14, page 7, line 30, after ““above”” insert ““or below”” The noble Lord said: These are probing amendments which contain a number of technical questions. The Bill defines the situation vis-à-vis power lines and pipelines in a particular way, and that needs to be expanded. Amendment No. 115 would include electricity cables below ground as well as above. I accept entirely that undergrounding major electricity power lines is a very expensive operation, but the reality is that from time to time it is done, and done for very good environmental reasons. I would not want a situation in which power lines could not be put underground because they had not been included in the Bill. Putting something underground may well not require planning permission, but that would be remarkable and might tempt a lot of landowners to start building subterranean houses, which I am sure is not the Bill’s intention. We need to debate that. Amendment No. 117A deals with gas pipelines that do not carry what we consider to be gas, such as natural gas, but carbon dioxide. There is the question of whether gas lines carrying carbon dioxide are peripheral to the power station if they are involved in the process of carbon sequestration. Everybody hopes that carbon sequestration will work; they see it as a lifebelt for the coal industry. My view is that we do not know the cost of carbon sequestration; still less do we know the energy penalty of placing carbon sequestration on a coal-fired power station. These are real questions. If we are to continue with coal-fired power stations in any numbers, while a pipeline may initially be peripheral to the planning application for the power station, we may in the end need to consider the construction of a carbon dioxide grid. That will be a major operation and we ought to think about it at this stage. Concomitant to this line of thought is the suggestion that one of the best places to sequester carbon dioxide is under the North Sea in the holes from which we have extracted natural gas or oil. Indeed, it might improve the reclamation rate from oil or gas fields as a consequence. However, if we are to do that, will it have any impact on the marine Bill, which we have not yet seen? I do not know the answer. I hope that the Minister will be able to reassure us. Amendment No. 125 deals with the reuse of heat, which currently flows from power stations into the atmosphere or into the sea. One of the interesting things about the installation of the Bradwell power station 30 years ago was that, within a short period, the timber quay which had been built out into the Blackwater estuary was attacked by the Teredo worm. The Teredo worm is a tropical problem, but the heat outfalls from the Bradwell power station had raised the local temperature in the estuary to the point where the Teredo worm could flourish. That is potential problem which we need to think about. The disposal of waste heat is a very real issue. I said enough about it earlier not to need to repeat how we might need to think about using it, but I am confident that it will be a major issue in the future and we need to think about it at this stage. Amendment No. 133 is simple and straightforward, dealing with the issue of connectors which are not in the United Kingdom. The Bill adequately covers Wales and Scotland—it does not cover Northern Ireland; I do not think that we have any direct connectors to Northern Ireland at the moment, but I suspect that we ought to cover it in the Bill, because, if we do not, it is as sure as night follows day that, about 10 years from now, somebody will produce a connector to Northern Ireland. We ought to think about that. We have connectors to France, to the Low Countries for gas, and it is possible that we will have direct connectors from Norway to England. The Bill does not provide for that. These are developments which one cannot predict, but they might happen. We need to give careful thought to the possibility, because, if we do not, it is again as sure as night follows day that somebody will at some point raise the issue and it will be an embarrassment. There is again the question of the relationship with the marine Bill, which is yet to come. I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say on this broad spectrum of subjects.