The Government today revealed plans to change the planning laws to ensure that some of Britain's ageing nuclear power stations can be replaced - sparking a huge row with "green" campaigners.
Announcing the Government’s Energy Review in Parliament today, Alistair Darling, the Trade and Industry Secretary, said that nuclear energy could make a significant contribution to Britain's future energy security. It is understood that this could entail the building of a new generation of up to six nuclear power stations.
Mr Darling told MPs that the amount of electricity generated by nuclear power would fall from the current 20 per cent to 6 per cent in the next 20 years. He made no specific policy commitments, promising further consultation and a White Paper this winter, but said that decisions must be made "in the next few years".
If measures were not taken now to fill the gap left by the closure of ageing nuclear power stations, Britain would become dependent on costly overseas gas imports, often from unstable parts of the world.
The process of commissioning new nuclear plants - and indeed wind farms - has been until now greatly delayed by the planning process. In future, the Energy Review promises, the Government will be able to make a declaration of need, stating that the country requires a nuclear power station - reducing the scope for lengthy objections at public inquiries.
Mr Darling told MPs however that nuclear power was only a part of the solution, and announced that in future, 20 per cent of Britain's energy should come from renewable sources. The current target is 15 per cent.
The building of new renewable energy plants has however also been prone to planning delays, so today's review proposes to create the post of specialist planning inspector whose role will be to ensure that applications for offshore windfarms and turbines to harness the power of the tide should not get bogged down.
Mr Darling also said that coal-fired power generation - which last winter was providing up to a half of Britain's energy needs - had a future role to play, so long as technology could cut the heavy toll of carbon it released into the atmosphere.
The Trade and Industry Secretary said that exhausted North Sea oil fields could be used for "carbon capture" - safely storing potentially polluting carbon emissions - thus cutting carbon emissions by millions of tonnes.
There was a raft of proposals for encouraging businesses to reduce their energy usage and emissions, and cutting pollution by road transport by, for example, greater use of biomass fuels as alternatives to fossil fuels.
The Energy Review says that individuals too can play their part in preventing climate change. It proposes that new applications to site solar panels or wind turbines on the roofs of domestic properties should become virtually exempt from planning laws, in order to encourage homeowners to become more actively involved in generating their own power.
In most cases there would be a presumption that such planning applications should be accepted, the review says, and technology should be developed to allow excess power generated in this way to be fed into the national grid.
Power generation firms should also be given incentives to help homeowners make their homes more energy efficient, rather than simply trying to sell them as much power as possible. Measures such as smart metering and better and clearer fuel bills would help consumers to understand how to reduce their energy usage, Mr Darling told the Commons.
The Government wishes to cut dramatically the 7 per cent of all power used in the UK which is used keeping computers, videos, televisions and other electrical appliances on standby. Mr Darling said that talks would be held with manufacturers and other bodies in order to cut the amount of effectively wasted energy.
Despite the many green initiatives in the Energy Review, the issue that has enraged Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the Green Party and other anti-nuclear groups is the proposal to invest once more in nuclear power. Green groups claimed today that there was no public support for nuclear power, and no need to replace ageing nuclear power stations.
"We can tackle climate change and meet our energy needs by cutting energy waste, harnessing the power of renewables and using fossil fuels more efficiently," said Tony Juniper, the director of Friends of the Earth.
"And we can do this without wasting more money on dirty and dangerous nuclear power. The world is already a dangerous place. Encouraging countries around the world to build nuclear power stations will make it even more so."
Instead, he said, the Government should pass a new climate change law committing Britain to annual cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.
Stephen Hale, the director of the Green Alliance and a former Defra special adviser, said that Mr Blair's public support of nuclear power had skewed the debate and was draining investment away from renewable energy. Taxing flights would be a better way of tackling climate change, he said.
"As long as this Government identifies nuclear power as essential, it will discourage potential investors in other sectors," he said.
"Climate change is the pretext for the Government’s position on nuclear. But a rethink of the aviation White Paper would be far more effective as part of a climate strategy than a new wave of nuclear power stations."
The Conservatives mocked Mr Darling's statement as short on specifics. Alan Duncan, the shadow Trade and Industry Secretary, said: "He proposes six new consultations and a new forum, but there's no real policies, no real action, no real decisions, no energy review at all. There's nothing there."
Earlier, David Cameron said the Government was right to prioritise cutting carbon emissions "to save the planet" and make sure that Britain's power supplies were secure. "What they’ve got to do is allow a revolution in green energy," he said. "You’ve got to allow that market to explode. Nuclear can be there as a last resort."
There was strong support from the unions for the idea of Britain guaranteeing a stable, domestic source of energy. Gary Smith, national officer for the energy industry for the GMB union, said: "Thank goodness someone has taken a forward looking view so that we will not have to rely on anyone but ourselves to meet our energy needs in the years to come. GMB welcomes the commitment to a balanced energy policy."
But consumer experts said that the debate should take more account of the high energy prices that British households are being forced to foot.
"One way or another, we are going to be left with higher household energy bills, and if the pricing trends we have seen over the past five years continue, we could see prices increase by a further 80 per cent by 2011, taking the average household energy bill from its current level of £915 to £1,647," said Ann Robinson, of consumer advice firm uSwitch.com.
"There are already three million households in this country who are struggling to pay their energy bills, and this figure could rise to over six million in the next five years unless the Government incorporates specific, targeted measures to tackle this problem when it unveils its final proposals."
