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New UK energy review highlights FF/PD sleepwalking on energy

Issued : Tuesday 11 July, 2006

The release today of a major new energy review by the British Labour government has highlighted the continued lethargy by the FF/PD government on critical energy issues said Labour’s Energy Spokesperson Tommy Broughan TD.

“Today’s energy document is the third comprehensive policy document on Britain’s energy future that the British government has produced in the last five years. This contrasts strongly with the energy policy vacuum that exists in this state. The last major energy document in Ireland was the 1978 Energy White Paper that came on the back of the oil spikes and energy crises that rocked the world economy during the 1970s.

“Although much of the comment on this new British energy review has rightly centred on whether the go-ahead will be given to a new generation of British nuclear power plants, there are also a number of other significant issues covered by the review.

“These include measures to achieve a five-fold increase in energy production from wind, solar, tidal and biomass sources; proposals to increase the level of electricity produced by renewable sources from 4 per cent to 20 per cent of the UK's needs by 2020, as well as the prioritisation of financial support towards promising renewable technologies that are currently uneconomic such as offshore wind farms.

“There are also plans to reform the current Renewables Obligation (RO) programme that makes energy utilities source a certain amount of their electricity from renewable energy supplies.

“This morning in a radio interview Minister Dermot Ahern outlined his opposition to nuclear power and sang the praises of renewable energy. Most people would share his views on the necessity of developing renewable energy supplies.

“Yet when he was Minister with responsibility for energy he did absolutely nothing to promote renewable energy resources and the diversification of the Irish energy mix. His successor, Minister Noel Dempsey, has also promised much but delivered little.

“We are into the last months of a nine year administration that has closed its eyes to the mounting energy challenges ahead and produced nothing of worth in this regard. We must now await Minister Dempsey’s long-promised Energy Green Paper which is due for publication this summer.”