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Department of Energy and Climate Change

The meeting that I had with the energy companies yesterday is becoming increasingly public. There is an awareness of the long-standing issue of the EU ETS and how the decision was made on carbon allowances, and of the EU ruling on that question. The companies would say that they are using that money for investment. It is also important that they realise that at this time, when people are under terrible financial pressure, they have a set of responsibilities to our wider society and to the people who are their customers—I certainly made that point to them.