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Energy Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord. My surprise at his reference to carbon storage did not arise because I was not aware that the Bill concerns itself with the issue. He rightly said that he has trailed points that we will have to discuss in considerable detail when we reach that part of the Bill. I was trying to think of the direct application of carbon storage to our critical storage facilities for gas at present. We have alternatives to thinking that there is direct competition for the Rough storage facility between gas and carbon storage, but we will discuss that in due course. The noble Lord is right that we have to provide for substantial carbon storage, and we will need to use space that otherwise might be used for gas storage. I hope I will be able to demonstrate by then that we have adequate provision. On the question about the technical problems with salt caverns, I do not have an immediate answer. The noble Lord raised an interesting topic and we will need to think about that. I hope he does not raise the question too soon—that is, at the next Committee sitting—because I might not be able to answer it then either. I assure him that he has raised a point that we need to consider carefully, and we will provide answers to it in due course.