The Telegraph: An energy policy that makes little sense
The very idea that an advanced economy such as ours faces an energy crisis within the next few years should attract the most urgent attention of our political leaders. Yet we appear to be drifting into a situation of great seriousness because they are all wedded to unrealistic decarbonisation targets that none seems willing to revisit.
As Owen Paterson, the former environment secretary, is going to say in a speech this week, the country will “struggle to keep the lights on” unless something is done soon.
Much of the current problem stems from mistakes made by the last government. Labour effectively scrapped the UK civil nuclear programme until, far too late in the day, it tried to revive it as part of this country’s commitment to lower CO2 emissions.