Parliamentary Search

Opposition day on Wednesday, 13 January 2010, in the House of Commons, led by Greg Clark. The answering member was Ed Miliband.

Energy Security

Energy security. Second opposition day debate (part 2). Motion negatived on division (355 to 182). Amendment agreed on division (285 to 173).

Secondary information

Type
Parliamentary proceeding
Reference
503 c754-808 
Session
2009-10
Department
Department of Energy and Climate Change
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Proceeding contributions
Speaker | 503 c778 (Link to this contribution) An allegation relating to whether information is correct or not is a matter of debate, and there sho...
Simon Hughes | 503 c756 (Link to this contribution) The consensual tone of the hon. Gentleman's opening remarks is in notable contrast to comments that ...
Show all contributions (124)
Greg Clark | 503 c756 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend, but the fact that the Secretary of State has described the situation as...
Peter Luff | 503 c755 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend makes an important point. The Committee that I chair, which is of course a cross-part...
Greg Clark | 503 c754-5 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move,"That this House notes the impending retirement of over 20 gigawatts of UK generating ...
Speaker | 503 c754 (Link to this contribution) I advise the House that Mr. Speaker has selected the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister. I ...
Philip Dunne | 503 c755-6 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend is being characteristically generous-hearted to the Secretary of State. Is this not t...
Greg Clark | 503 c755 (Link to this contribution) I agree with the hon. Lady to an extent. Of course it is necessary to consider whether individual lo...
Joan Humble | 503 c755 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman take into account the specific needs of individual gas storage applications?...
Greg Clark | 503 c755 (Link to this contribution) I am afraid I cannot, but my hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the work of the Select Commit...
Greg Clark | 503 c759-60 (Link to this contribution) I am delighted to do that. Our party is strongly pro the development of offshore wind and marine and...
Mike Weir | 503 c760 (Link to this contribution) One of the problems with renewables, especially in Scotland, involves the transmission charges for b...
Viscount Thurso | 503 c759 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has rightly mentioned diversity of supply on several occasions. In that regard, w...
Greg Clark | 503 c757 (Link to this contribution) We think that, in order to secure our energy supplies in future, we need diversity of energy sources...
Lembit Opik | 503 c757 (Link to this contribution) I ask the hon. Gentleman, in the spirit of transparency called for by his colleague, the right hon. ...
Greg Clark | 503 c757 (Link to this contribution) I would agree with my right hon. Friend, who has always taken a responsible position on this subject...
Lord Deben | 503 c756 (Link to this contribution) I ask my hon. Friend to resist the temptation to listen to the Liberal Democrats on this issue, on t...
Greg Clark | 503 c759 (Link to this contribution) There will be a future for UK coal within that, but it depends on a number of factors. The hon. Gent...
David Anderson | 503 c759 (Link to this contribution) Is the hon. Gentleman satisfied that most of that coal will come from places such as Russia, where 6...
Greg Clark | 503 c757-9 (Link to this contribution) I shall talk about nuclear later. I am pro-nuclear; I believe we need to get on with it. I think tha...
Rob Marris | 503 c757 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the Conservative party for holding a debate on energy security. I agree that divers...
Jamie Reed | 503 c761 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Greg Clark | 503 c761 (Link to this contribution) I will, because I know that the nuclear interest is very important in the hon. Gentleman's constitue...
Jamie Reed | 503 c761 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. Fans of satire will be listening to his comments with real inte...
Greg Clark | 503 c760 (Link to this contribution) I cannot give a commitment that charges should be equal, but I recognise the point that the hon. Gen...
Greg Clark | 503 c760 (Link to this contribution) I want to make progress now, because lots of Members want to speak. If I have time, I will take the ...
Greg Clark | 503 c760 (Link to this contribution) Indeed. There will presumably be a second competition to embrace a wider range of CCS technology, fo...
Greg Clark | 503 c761 (Link to this contribution) I want to make a bit of progress, and then I will give way. Nuclear, which the hon. Member for Wolv...
Martin Horwood | 503 c760 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Greg Clark | 503 c756 (Link to this contribution) Of course I will not apologise. I think that if there is one significant threat to the country's ene...
Simon Hughes | 503 c779-81 (Link to this contribution) I can give the hon. Gentleman—my friend—an honest answer to his first question. No, I cannot explain...
Stephen Crabb | 503 c779 (Link to this contribution) I think the hon. Gentleman means liquefied natural gas. Can he explain why, at the 2005 general elec...
Simon Hughes | 503 c779 (Link to this contribution) I have spoken to my hon. Friend and I disagree with his analysis. That is not the official position ...
Greg Clark | 503 c778-9 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has quoted various people, but he has not been able to produce a single quotation...
Simon Hughes | 503 c778 (Link to this contribution) Thank you Mr. Deputy Speaker. My speech will be considerably shorter than those of the two Front Ben...
Lord Deben | 503 c777-8 (Link to this contribution) On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I have listened carefully to the hon. Gentleman's explanati...
Lord Deben | 503 c783-5 (Link to this contribution) I refer the House to my declaration of interest. I very much take on board the Secretary of State's...
Malcolm Wicks | 503 c781-3 (Link to this contribution) Understandably, the context for much of this debate has been the appalling conditions facing our cou...
Elliot Morley | 503 c785 (Link to this contribution) It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer), and I welcome th...
Colin Challen | 503 c789 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend will have read the press comment that the expansion of our offshore wind generation w...
Alan Simpson | 503 c788 (Link to this contribution) It is extremely unfortunate that the claim about there being eight days of gas supply left will fall...
Lord Deben | 503 c789 (Link to this contribution) Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the proposed system of feed-in tariffs is absolutely unsuited to ...
Alan Simpson | 503 c789 (Link to this contribution) That is absolutely right, provided that we set sufficiently ambitious tariffs, which I think need to...
Elliot Morley | 503 c786 (Link to this contribution) It is acceptable if gas supplies are maintained. In fact, the hon. Gentleman's colleague, the hon. M...
John Hemming | 503 c785 (Link to this contribution) On today's figures, National Grid estimates that for a one in 20 winter, 502 million cubic metres of...
David Heathcoat-Amory | 503 c786-8 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased to follow the right hon. Member for Scunthorpe (Mr. Morley), who speaks with great auth...
Alan Simpson | 503 c789 (Link to this contribution) Absolutely. It is absurd that we in the UK are restricted to a 5 MW threshold, when we should have a...
Richard Ottaway | 503 c789-91 (Link to this contribution) I declare an interest as an adviser to the South Hook LNG terminal, which has featured in this debat...
Mark Hendrick | 503 c791 (Link to this contribution) The world is facing a resource crisis. The global population is expected to increase to 9 billion by...
Mike Weir | 503 c792-4 (Link to this contribution) Several speakers have talked about the oil and gas industry in the North sea, but I would caution Me...
Mark Hendrick | 503 c791-2 (Link to this contribution) I remind the hon. Gentleman of the comment of a Conservative Front Bencher: we should expect the une...
Stephen Crabb | 503 c791 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman has been making some quite alarmist comments about imported energy sources. Does ...
Charles Hendry | 503 c794-5 (Link to this contribution) I hope to be forgiven if I do not give way, because we have been very short of time in this debate. ...
David Anderson | 503 c794 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Charles Hendry | 503 c794 (Link to this contribution) This debate has been all too short, but we have had some absolutely excellent contributions. They ha...
Charles Hendry | 503 c795-7 (Link to this contribution) I knew that my instincts were right: I should not have given way to the hon. Gentleman. In the 1980s...
David Kidney | 503 c797-8 (Link to this contribution) I, too, agree that this impressive debate has shown the House at its best; the contributions, coming...
David Anderson | 503 c795 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman talks about the lost years, but what about the lost years of the 1980s, when the ...
David Kidney | 503 c798 (Link to this contribution) I assure the hon. Gentleman that I will make inquiries on that point and see whether I can say more ...
Andrew Pelling | 503 c798 (Link to this contribution) My point is not weather-related. Unfortunately, my constituents have been suffering from a periodic ...
David Kidney | 503 c799-800 (Link to this contribution) Ah, there he is! Thank you. The right hon. Gentleman mentioned the carbon reduction commitment ener...
Ed Miliband | 503 c774 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that on this issue, as on several others, the hon. Gentleman now speaks for his Front-Benc...
Ed Miliband | 503 c774 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way to the hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash), but then I shall try to wind up so that La...
William Cash | 503 c774 (Link to this contribution) I have been very enthusiastic about the Secretary of State's comments on carbon capture and the deve...
Viscount Thurso | 503 c775 (Link to this contribution) With regard to offshore wind, may I draw to the Secretary of State's attention the potential problem...
Ed Miliband | 503 c775 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman may consider it drawn to my attention now. One of the ways in which we can get ah...
Alan Simpson | 503 c774 (Link to this contribution) May I return to transmission access charges? My right hon. Friend will be aware that the big six ene...
Ed Miliband | 503 c775 (Link to this contribution) My hon. Friend has great knowledge of these and many other subjects, so anything that he asks us to ...
Greg Clark | 503 c772 (Link to this contribution) The figure referred to the Government's central expectations, assuming that all the policies pursued...
Ed Miliband | 503 c772 (Link to this contribution) Yes, of course. I read all the documents—well perhaps not all, but as many as possible of the docume...
Greg Clark | 503 c773 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful for that, so will the right hon. Gentleman explain why, if he had read that document b...
Ed Miliband | 503 c773 (Link to this contribution) Because, as I have just explained to the hon. Gentleman, that figure is not of the seismic importanc...
Mike Weir | 503 c773-4 (Link to this contribution) I appreciate what the Secretary of State says about offshore wind, which I also support, but I make ...
Ed Miliband | 503 c774 (Link to this contribution) That is a long-running issue, but it is worth pointing out politely to the hon. Gentleman that, as a...
Ed Miliband | 503 c772 (Link to this contribution) I shall give way in a moment. I believe—I shall say more about this after I have heard the hon. Gent...
Ed Miliband | 503 c775 (Link to this contribution) I want to let hon. Members, including my hon. Friend, speak in the debate, but I will give way this ...
Lord Whitehead | 503 c775 (Link to this contribution) Will my right hon. Friend briefly reflect on the agreement that was signed by his Department as one ...
Greg Clark | 503 c777 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman makes a serious allegation when he suggests that these were false statistics. Tha...
Simon Hughes | 503 c777 (Link to this contribution) Of course I accept that, but if one deduces from that or if it is implied—or if one allows others to...
Stephen Crabb | 503 c777 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Simon Hughes | 503 c777 (Link to this contribution) In a second, but let me just deal with this important point. This debate is taking place partly beca...
Ed Miliband | 503 c775 (Link to this contribution) I agree with my hon. Friend. The European supergrid is an exciting prospect that will obviously requ...
Tobias Ellwood | 503 c776 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Simon Hughes | 503 c776-7 (Link to this contribution) I shall in a second. The Conservative party went out into the public domain—into the television and ...
Greg Clark | 503 c763-4 (Link to this contribution) I want to be fair and to make progress. Many Members wish to speak and there is a time limit on spee...
Ed Miliband | 503 c765-7 (Link to this contribution) I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from 'House' to end and add:""notes that around 20 gigawatt...
Greg Clark | 503 c764-5 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not give way. According to a recent written answer, the Government expect to build anoth...
Shona McIsaac | 503 c763 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Greg Clark | 503 c763 (Link to this contribution) I have been generous in taking interventions so I now want to make progress. Ministers dismissed th...
Shona McIsaac | 503 c762 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Greg Clark | 503 c762-3 (Link to this contribution) No, I will not. In that period, National Grid issued no fewer than four gas balancing alerts and su...
Shona McIsaac | 503 c763 (Link to this contribution) I thank the hon. Gentleman for his generosity. Is he aware that my constituency is probably the one ...
Greg Clark | 503 c763 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Lady's first point was constructive, and I share her welcome for the biomass plant—as I sai...
Greg Clark | 503 c762 (Link to this contribution) I will not, but I might later if I make better progress through the points that I want to make than ...
Martin Horwood | 503 c762 (Link to this contribution) Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
Greg Clark | 503 c762 (Link to this contribution) No; I want to make some progress. That brings me to the subject of gas, which has occupied our atte...
Greg Clark | 503 c761 (Link to this contribution) I have been disappointed by the hon. Gentleman's recent interventions on this matter. I have followe...
Greg Clark | 503 c761 (Link to this contribution) I will not give way, because I have given the hon. Gentleman his chance.
Bernard Jenkin | 503 c761 (Link to this contribution) I just wish to put on record what we all know. There have been Secretaries of State in this Governme...
Greg Clark | 503 c761 (Link to this contribution) I said that I wanted to be constructive, and I welcome the Government's conversion to a more sensibl...
Tobias Ellwood | 503 c761-2 (Link to this contribution) In the spirit of being constructive, may I urge my hon. Friend to urge the Secretary of State to inc...
Greg Clark | 503 c762 (Link to this contribution) I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. If we want to establish leadership on that, i...
Ed Miliband | 503 c771-2 (Link to this contribution) I am sure that my hon. Friend forms a formidable duo with the hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Mr...
Joan Humble | 503 c770-1 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre (Mr. Wallace) and I have worked very closely on this matter, ...
Ed Miliband | 503 c770 (Link to this contribution) I shall not get into individual planning applications, but I know that the IPC rightly takes safety ...
Ben Wallace | 503 c770 (Link to this contribution) In my constituency, a large planning application for underground gas storage facilities has been mad...
Ed Miliband | 503 c770 (Link to this contribution) The council obviously has not followed the example of the Leader of the Opposition. My hon. Friend i...
Celia Barlow | 503 c770 (Link to this contribution) I thank my right hon. Friend for taking my intervention. Had the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Gr...
Ed Miliband | 503 c769-70 (Link to this contribution) Obviously my hon. Friend looked at the proposal and thought that it was not a good one. As well as...
Ed Miliband | 503 c769 (Link to this contribution) We will look at all proposals, but what is the constraint? The constraint is that we are spending up...
Charles Hendry | 503 c769 (Link to this contribution) When the Secretary of State says that the Government will look at all proposals, is he aware that hi...
Ed Miliband | 503 c769 (Link to this contribution) We want price reductions to be passed on to consumers as quickly as possible. That is important, and...
Richard Ottaway | 503 c768 (Link to this contribution) The Secretary of State just said that the UK is currently experiencing the lowest gas prices in Euro...
Tobias Ellwood | 503 c769 (Link to this contribution) It does not matter where the gas comes from—whether it is through the Langeled pipeline or from the ...
Ed Miliband | 503 c768 (Link to this contribution) I am pleased that my hon. Friend intervened, because she takes me to the right part of my speech. Le...
Anne Begg | 503 c768 (Link to this contribution) Perhaps some of the Opposition's misunderstanding comes from the wording in their own motion, which ...
Ed Miliband | 503 c768 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman, about whom I made admiring remarks last week—I slightly regret it now—is k...
Andrew Murrison | 503 c767 (Link to this contribution) I wonder what a constituent who wrote to me a couple of days ago would say in response to the Secret...
Ed Miliband | 503 c767 (Link to this contribution) The hon. Gentleman asks a serious question about a business in his constituency. Obviously we want t...
Simon Hughes | 503 c776 (Link to this contribution) I welcome this debate, which is topical and appropriate. I also welcome the fact that it began in a ...
Lord Deben | 503 c767 (Link to this contribution) The right hon. Gentleman rightly warns us against playing politics with energy security, but would h...
Subjects
Coal fired power stations Electricity generation Energy supply Fuels Natural gas Nuclear power stations Prices Security Storage Renewable energy Fossil fuelled power stations
Link
View this Parliamentary proceeding on www.publications.parliament.uk