Sir, Twenty years of government procrastination has ended with the latest statement on energy policy. A decision rightly made, even if delayed, is better than no decision at all as far as the environment is concerned.

Our first generation of Magnox reactors will be shut down before the third generation can take their place. However, the issue is not fully resolved without clear leadership by government, and hopefully from all parties, through the planning and regulation processes. Many a major project has been stalled by the lack of continuing commitment from sponsors and, most importantly, regulators. While industry and the private sector can implement policy, the energy policy must be supported and refreshed by the continuity of government commitment for success.

No longer should we be arguing: “Is nuclear safe, is it economic or what should we do with the waste?” The UK nuclear industry has operators of the highest calibre; we should pick the best world technology for a design that is trusted on price, and remember that we have been quietly getting on with the job of conditioning waste into glass for storage, waiting only for someone to tell us where to put it.

We should accept now that we need the maximum practicable from all nuclear and renewable technologies to set our example for CO2 emission reduction. Even if we have to take on Camilla Cavendish’s “tough decision” on coal (“A dark shadow behind nuclear power”, Jan 10), let it be one in favour of the market price for clean electricity, as long as the emission levels are equivalent to nuclear as the “gold” standard in CO2 emissions.

Dr Chris Marchese

Saxtead, Suffolk

Sir, Camilla Cavendish is wrong when she states that “the Energy Minister hasn’t even bid for a budget” for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology in the UK.

We are currently running a competition for a company to build the first CCS power plant in the UK. We have said that we will back the winner with the costs it incurs to fit CCS, over and above what it would have cost to build a regular coal-fired power plant. It will involve significant sums of public money and we expect the plant to be up and running by 2014 and to be one of the first in the world.

We are also part-funding a project in China that aims to develop and demonstrate CCS technology, committing £3.5 million through the EU near zero Emissions coal initiative. By 2030 wider deployment of this technology could mean that up to a third of Britain’s electricity generated in this way.

Malcolm Wicks

Energy Minister

Sir, In formulating long-term energy policy, coal has a vital part to play. Coal’s share of world energy is nearly five times greater than that of nuclear, and it is set to grow at a rapid rate, especially in China and India but also in America and parts of Europe. Coal reserves are plentiful, including in Britain.

This makes it vital to deal with the issue of coal’s carbon emissions. It can be done by the process of carbon capture and storage. The component parts of this process have been successfully tested, but as yet there is no large-scale demonstration plant of the process as a whole. The Government has announced a competition to select such a plant, but meanwhile opportunities have been lost. The proposed BP plant at Peterhead in Scotland was scrapped last year because of a lack of government support and there are a number of other projects at various stages of development that cannot come to fruition without some form of government help.

Lord Ezra

House of Lords

Explore Letters

• Feedback