If plans to build new coal-fired power stations go ahead in Britain, it will be rather like building palaces to burn caviar. The cost of coal and construction are rocketing up. Most of the coal will be imported, mainly from Russia. The carbon dioxide emissions created will be about twice those produced in gas-burning facilities of equal power. With the looming threat of climate change, and growing concerns about energy security, waving through a new generation of dirty coal plants would be decadent and irresponsible.

A powerful alliance is forming around this view: 228 MPs have signed an early day motion calling for a public inquiry into the planned new plant at Kingsnorth, Kent. The Royal Society wants operating permits for coal-burning to be withdrawn unless there are massive emissions reductions. Now the Environmental Audit Committee is demanding that the Government set a deadline for coal-fired power stations to close, or adopt clean carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. That is what Arnold Schwarzenegger has effectively done in California, and it is similar to Conservative and Liberal Democrat policy.

The Government looks increasingly uncomfortable. It is running a competition to pilot CCS, but will not require new developments to use it. It hopes that emissions trading will make dirty coal uneconomic for investors, but the audit committee says that is naive.

It is Government's job to keep the lights on. But its defeatism on coal is at odds with its newly sophisticated thinking on renewable power. The Prime Minister should perhaps impress upon his energy colleagues his new watchword for food: waste not, want not.