The government has turned its back on the chance to create a more efficient, cheaper and greener energy supply system, Labour MP Alan Whitehead told delegates at UNISON’s energy service group conference in Brighton today.
“The system that has met our energy requirements in the past has simply broken down – it requires very high carbon inputs and huge investment,” said Mr Whitehead, who sits on Parliament’s energy and climate change select committee.
But there is an alternative, he told delegates: “We are in the middle of an energy revolution that has the potential to change the way we do energy in this country.”
Renewable energy, plus other developments – such as smart grids, battery storage and a new generation of interconnectors that could link the UK’s energy supply with the rest of Europe – offer the prospect of a “more efficient, cheaper, greener and more localised system of energy supply”, he said.
But instead of investing in these areas, the government is spending huge sums on building new gas-fired and nuclear power stations, “neither of which look like they’re going to work”.
Mr Whitehead said that doubts had been cast on the viability of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station project: last week EDF’s top managers wrote to MPs saying that the project should be postponed until design and legal problems have been resolved.
Meanwhile, he told delegates, billions have been spent on trying to procure a 15-year contract to build new gas-fired power stations, but no contracts have yet been signed.
Service group executive chair Jenny Middleton (above) told delegates: “This government has slashed subsidies for solar power and its lack of clear policies are not helping the energy market.”
Delegates condemned the government for failing “to address significant issues relating to the future of energy supply in the UK”, and urged the union to continue lobbying politicians and stakeholders to develop a sustainable long-term energy policy.
Mr Whitehead took questions from the conference floor and was asked whether public ownership was part of the Labour party’s future energy policy.
He said he was bound by the collective policy of the Labour party, but added that “the shape of the future energy economy has to be in the hands of local people and funded by different methods than the traditional ones.”
“We need to be firmer about how we go forward in terms of new forms of energy and different forms of energy management,” he told conference.
