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Energy Bill

I thank the Minister for the proposed letter. The noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, is right because we tend to think of these things in financial terms. We are thinking about how to stick to ROCs, but the whole basis for a renewables obligation and the reason so many of us are interested in this field is because we are running out of fossil fuels—this is a way of bringing forward a renewable source of energy—and we are worried about carbon. They are the issues that concern us most. We are hidebound by ROCs, so a situation has developed where enormous amounts of methane are allowed to escape into the atmosphere, yet we are stopping ourselves from using such sources developed on a local scale in order to reduce the amount of fossil fuel we use. Given that situation, there is a fundamental flaw in ROCs. I cannot take the issue any further at this stage. I shall withdraw the amendment, but it is very depressing to think that while we are looking at ROCs as a way of promoting renewable energy, the Minister has just repeated an argument that the noble Lord, Lord Whitty, said is not new. It simply shows how the department is working in a way that actually destroys the very basis on which some of these industries will depend in the future. That does not mean just methane, but in other areas of microgeneration. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.