Nuclear chiefs say plans do not go far enough

More incentives are needed, Blair warned · Proposals fail to win cross-party consensus Terry Macalister and Patrick WintourWednesday July 12, 2006The Guardian
The nuclear power industry dealt a blow to the government's hopes of seeing a new generation of plants when leaders warned that the energy review published yesterday did not go far enough or offer suitable incentives. Politicians must get away from the "froth" of words and come up with something more concrete before winning support for new stations, said the Association of Electricity Producers (AEP).
Other nuclear experts warned that Tony Blair's hopes of a nuclear future could be wrecked by skills shortages, while the energy regulator, Alistair Buchanan, said last night there could be a gas supply crunch as early as this winter.


But the prime minister is convinced he has won over nuclear investors by offering a range of measures, including a speeding-up of the planning process and allowing reactor designs to be licensed in advance.
The power industry warned that it needed more clarity. "Well-informed people seem to forget that the government does not build and run our power stations. It is our members that do that. They have to spend at least £20bn on clean, new power stations," said David Porter, chief executive of the AEP. "It is vitally important that we move on as soon as possible from the froth of public debate to a meaningful framework for investment."
But EDF Energy, one of the UK's biggest power suppliers, which has been at the forefront of lobbying for new plants, described the review as a "major step" forward.
Mr Blair appeared to have tempered backbench anger over his endorsement of a new generation of nuclear power stations by also announcing unexpectedly tough curbs on business and consumer consumption of carbon, including green levies on supermarkets and banks and bans on energy-inefficient fridges and bulbs.
Alistair Darling, the trade and industry secretary, worked closely with the environment secretary, David Miliband, to produce the package, which includes a novel business model for electricity in which firms' profits will be based on the delivery of energy services, including the amount of energy-efficient heat and light provided, rather than simply electricity.
Mr Blair privately highlighted the plan for a domestic carbon trading scheme covering 500 big companies currently excluded from the European scheme, including big firms like Tesco. He also persuaded cabinet sceptics that the commitments on energy efficiency and renewables, coupled with the climate change crisis, overrode doubts about the cost of nuclear, and the storage of its toxic waste.
But there were signs that Mr Blair had been unable to construct a cross-party consensus. The shadow industry secretary, Alan Duncan, said Mr Darling's statement contained "no real policies, no real action, no real decisions. This review could have done so much more. It is a grave and perilous let-down." Edward Davey, the Lib Dems' spokesman, welcomed the commitments to renewables but added: "By caving in to the nuclear industry lobby, you have destroyed the possibility of cross-party consensus."