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In focus with Sir Bernard Ingham
Up to our ears in debt but value for money still has no appeal
Well, now we know how much Chancellor George Osborne is committed to value for money in energy policy. Not much. True, in his autumn statement he halved subsidies for solar panels but only because their cost has come down substantially. He also brought in £250m energy cost relief for intensive energy users who are supposed to be a prime target for reducing carbon emissions, thereby complicating energy policy still further while usefully helping to retain heavy industry in the UK.
The SNP and Greens say they are prepared to see Hunterston keep working beyond the end of its design life in 2011. This is a contradictory position for parties which claim nuclear is dangerous. To give the Lib Dems their due, they want Hunterston closed down in 2011 come hell, high water and blackouts.
But it is increasingly likely they won't have the option. We need a new reactor (or some other non-intermittent power source) in place by or very shortly after 2011 or we will have blackouts. It takes four years to build a nuclear power station, though most timescales given by government assume at least five years shuffling paper first. We do not have time for such nonsense if we want to avoid blackouts and hypothermia deaths.
