Energy and Climate Change and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Except Chelsea; the Secretary of State is absolutely right. It can afford to do so because it is so flush with Russian oil money that it is untrue. A good example! We face another problem: the closure of much of the current electricity generating capacity over the next 10 to 15 years. Most of our nuclear power stations, and half our coal-fired power stations, are due to be decommissioned, thanks to the EU's large combustion power directive, which is about controlling emissions. Consequently, we will not have the resources to provide adequate, conventional back-up capacity, despite the Government's welcome acceptance of the need for nuclear power and the onset of new gas-fired capacity. The required back-up just will not be there, and that makes nonsense of the Government's reliance on wind turbines for such a sizeable proportion of the nation's energy requirement. Why not allocate more resources to nuclear power? The simple but disturbing answer is that that would not be permitted under the EU's 2008 renewable energy directive, wherein Britain has agreed to meet 15 per cent. of its energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020. We could have fought our corner, and battled against the nonsense, but perhaps the Government hoped that the previous Prime Minister would become President of the EU, and so did not want to rock the boat. Who knows what the reason is? The Government certainly did not fight the issue. In fact, many experts now tell them that on the question of wind power, they have got it wrong.