The Government has finally published its Draft Energy Bill which includes so-called Electricity Market Reform as promised in the Queen’s Speech earlier this month. Keith MacLean, head of policy at one of the Big Six utilities, Scottish and Southern Energy, says it’s a complex system “designed to mask what is effectively a subsidy for new nuclear power, which could derail investment in renewables”.
Energy Secretary Ed Davey was pressed on the Today programme this morning by presenter John Humphries on whether the changes amounted to a subsidy for new nuclear. John Humphries said the Coalition Agreement and the European Commission prohibit subsidies to new reactors and so the Government is trying to get around that by calling it something else, and offering long-term contracts to would-be nuclear-builders.
For a longer version of this article see Spinwatch 22nd May 2012.
