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Proceeding contribution from David Mowat (Conservative) in the House of Commons on Wednesday, 11 January 2012. It occurred during Opposition day on Energy Prices.


Energy Prices

I was aware of that, and I shall finish on this point by saying that if Labour Members have evidence of directors operating a cartel, which is a criminal offence, they should come forward with it. Alternatively, they should just stop making the accusation, which is becoming increasingly silly. I was somewhat disappointed by the Secretary of State's answer to the question about shale gas, because it has the potential to be a game changer. In the United States gas prices have reduced by a factor of three and, in 2015, the US is going to start exporting shale gas, and if we do not have it here, that could well have a major impact on the structure of the industry and how it will work in the future. For the first time, we are seeing the decoupling of gas and oil prices, and once that has happened, all bets are off. The price of gas in Europe—in the European balancing hub—is three times what it is in the US. If a fraction of what happened in the US happens here, the results could be very radical and could create some issues to address in terms of the debt strategy. Whereas we have nearly the lowest gas prices in Europe, the same cannot be said for electricity prices. We have structural issues to address in our electricity market. We do not have cheap nuclear power, as France does. We have missed the opportunity on that, although we are doing our best to catch up. In the minute remaining, I want to suggest to the Minister one area that I believe we have got wrong in policy terms. The Climate Change Act 2008 sets a very ambitious target of 80% decarbonisation, and I accept that, but I believe we have confused the need to decarbonise with the need to go for renewables. The 20-20-20 directive from 2009, which imposes a renewables target over and above what we could have done to reduce carbon, has confused the issue. As a result, we have gone into nuclear more slowly than we should have done and, frankly, we have gone more slowly into carbon capture and storage, which is an alternative. Will the Minister assure us that the Green investment bank will be concerned with decarbonisation, not just renewables, and that the money available from it will therefore be available to the nuclear industry, which is in as much need of it as other parts of the decarbonisation chain, and the CCS industry?


Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
538 c280-1 
Session
2010-12
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Conservation Housing Energy Electricity Fuel poverty Insulation Warm front scheme Natural gas Meters Prices Renewable energy Winter fuel payment Feed-in tariffs Warm home discount scheme Green deal scheme
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk