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Energy: National Policy Statements

My Lords, it was not that long ago. If the party opposite is going to make criticism of this Government’s decision on nuclear, it needs to look at its own record as well. On whether we have enough electricity generation, as the Statement said, great progress is being made. Two gigawatts of capacity has been constructed this year; another eight gigawatts is under construction; another 10.5 gigawatts has been consented to. Of course, we cannot be complacent, but a lot of good work is being undertaken. The noble Baroness welcomed the overall thrust of the changes being made to the planning system, but she was concerned that Ministers would not take the final decisions in relation to individual applications. That is quite deliberate; we have seen it appropriate to have a separation whereby Ministers make decisions in relation to the national policy statements after scrutiny by Parliament—it is right for Ministers to make the policy—but where individual planning decisions are made by an independent body. That separation is likely to lead to greater public confidence. On coal, we are still in a position to be a world leader. We still hope that the 2014 demonstration deadline will be achievable; two bids are in the process for the first competition; I have taken part in a number of international discussions about CCS; and there is a determination to see a considerable number of scaled-up projects developed. There is no possibility of meeting the emission reduction targets which we have set and which we hope through Copenhagen will be set internationally without the development of CCS. I agree that it is important that we should be a leader. On renewables, it is true that we started from a low base, but we have made great progress in recent years. Electricity generation through renewables reached more than 5 per cent in 2008; we want to build on that. However, clear concern has been expressed about the record of local authorities, particularly those represented by the noble Baroness’s own party, in refusing many applications. The NPSs are obviously concerned with nationally significant infrastructure projects, but they set the parameters within which local planning decisions will be made. It is very important to bear that in mind. I welcome the general comments of the noble Lord, Lord Redesdale. I readily admit that there are a considerable number of documents which will need to be considered very carefully. He focused particularly on the nuclear NPS and implied that, because we decided that we should do a lot of the assessment work around individual sites to present in the NPS, it means that decisions are a fait accompli. I must resist that interpretation. It is laid down that each application has to go through due process. I am confident that the IPC will go through all the processes that need to be gone through. We believe that the inquisitorial, as opposed to the adversarial, approach will allow local people rather better involvement in decisions than under the old system. I was reminded of the public inquiry that occurred in relation to Sizewell B, which I understand took more than 300 days of public hearings, only 30 or so of which were concerned with local issues. I reassure the noble Lord that the process will be vigorous. We can expect stakeholders and interested parties to look carefully at the way in which the whole process is undertaken. It is important to reflect that if local people have objections they will be allowed to express them much more coherently, transparently and easily than in the past. On CCS, the noble Lord made an interesting comment about the Crown Estate. It is probably beyond my remit to discuss the terms under which the Crown Estate must produce income. However, I always welcome debate and transparency about the doings of the Crown Estate and I would not discourage him from allowing us to debate those matters in due course. Of course, he will be aware of the Crown Estate’s very important role at the moment in terms of the licensing regime for wave and tidal power, which is very important indeed. On waste management, the noble Lord probably missed the point from the Statement that we are satisfied that on the basis of the science and international experience, effective arrangements to manage and dispose of the waste from new nuclear power stations can be put in place. On the issue of reactor designs, we have today opened consultation on the proposed regulatory justification for two different reactor designs and clearly we will invite comments on that. In relation to geological disposal facilities, of course we have had expressions of interest from local communities in Cumbria. The process was described as to how we would take this forward in the White Paper Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS), and I am satisfied that we are making progress in the way we ought to do so. As far as the electricity infrastructure is concerned, the NPS does refer to the Electricity Network Strategy Group report, Our Electricity Transmission Network: A Vision for 2020, regarding increases in generation and changes in direction. I would refer him to that. As far as anaerobic digestion is concerned, the noble Lord knows that I, too, have a considerable interest in that. It does have great potential. Whether we can go as far as his estimate is another matter. I am grateful that he gave me a little notice of this, because I am advised that anaerobic digestion is covered in section 2.57, which refers to biomass and waste combustion. It refers specifically to biogas, sewage, sludge and animal manure. These are all technologies associated with anaerobic digestion. I hope the noble Lord is reassured.