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Energy: National Policy Statements

My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement with such startling enthusiasm when what we have just heard is the declaration of a national emergency for our energy security. The question that the Minister should answer is: why did this Labour Government leave it so late to act? The Statement is made necessary by the Government’s admission in July that they expect power cuts in 2017. The cause of this national emergency is obvious: for over 12 years, 15 successive Energy Ministers—a new one every nine months— behaved like the ostrich and stuck their head in the sand rather than face up to the action that was needed to address our energy black hole. Did the Government know that most of our nuclear power stations would reach the end of their planned life before 2017? Was anyone in this Administration informed that North Sea oil and gas production would peak and fall away? Did anyone tell the Government that our most polluting coal-fired power stations were about to close? Every one of the measures contained in this Statement should have been brought forward 10 years ago when the Government had their chance to secure the investments that are so desperately needed to keep the lights on, keep prices down and cut carbon emissions. Why leave it so late? On the planning statements themselves, we support the Government. We agree that it is right to create a fast-track planning process for large infrastructure projects, with a dedicated secretariat and time-limited decisions. Does the Minister agree, however, that the final decision should be taken not by an unelected, unaccountable official but by a Minister accountable to Parliament? Nuclear must be part of a diverse energy mix, provided that it is commercially viable, but does the Minister accept that it is now too late for new nuclear to come on stream fast enough to replace our current capacity before it shuts down and that this will increase our dependence on gas imports until at least 2020? On coal, will the Minister confirm that the large combustion plant directive will close a third of our coal capacity but, since it was agreed by the Government in 2001, not a single carbon capture and storage plant has been authorised to replace it? Is 2014 still the date by which any entry in the Government’s CCS competition must be up and running, or will the Minister confirm what the industry tells us—that it has had to be put back yet again? On renewables, Britain has the lowest proportion of energy from renewable sources of any EU country apart from Malta and Luxembourg. As the Secretary of State intends again to entertain his colleagues in another place by blaming the gaping hole in our energy supply on rural district councils rather than on the void in energy policy, why the Government have not proposed reforms in their Statement to allow communities to benefit from wind farms is beyond me. Britain’s consumers and businesses will pay through the nose for the last-minute scramble that the Secretary of State has announced today to cope with the blackouts that he predicted in July. Maybe the Minister will explain, clearly and simply, why the Government have allowed us to get into this state. Perhaps he will accompany his response with an apology to the British people for 12 years of negligence, for which we are now paying the price.